Star Trek : Revelation Season One (Yr 2368)
by HalString
Summary: Set in the year 2368, this is a series of stories about a new Prototype Federation Starship USS Revelation NX 74601 and its crew as they cope with new and old enemies, along with revelations about themselves. Crew: Captain Michael Delany, Commander Katherine Malloy, Commander Savok, Lieutenant Commander Galloway, Lieutenant Hawkins, Lieutenant Kel Aniyan, Lieutenant Rochelle Smith.
1. S1 E1 - Times Destiny (Part One)

**STAR TREK - REVELATION**

**Episode 001 – Times Destiny (Part One)**

_Pen Name: Stringyfellow_

The static, electric child-like voice spoke to him; where it came from was unknown, no one else heard it, only he did, "You must correct the time line."

"The lady who dies twice will save thousands more."

"The traitor will become your greatest weapon."

"You must correct the time line."

"She must, has and will stand trial, rescue her."

Images flashed through his mind, a gleaming starship one that was somehow familiar to him and yet so distant.

"The time line must be corrected."

"The doctor will hunt them all down."

"The time line must be corrected."

The starship, battle damaged almost beyond recognition; a distant planet unfamiliar to him, "You must correct the time line to save us."

"She destroyed your ship but will always help to save it."

"Your final destiny is to save us!"

Captain Michael Delany suddenly jolted out of his seat. Had he been dreaming that voice, the overlapping voices and the images? Why were they all familiar to him? He looked around the Bridge; it was the Bridge of his ship the USS Merrimac. His crewmembers were on duty. His First Officer Commander Savok, a Vulcan who was an exceptional officer for his logical approach to solving problems and his exceptional strength. Behind him was his Tactical and Second Officer, Lieutenant Commander Meredith Farrar. A human who passed top of her class at the Academy and had yet chosen this assignment. At the Helm was the Andorian Kalar who was one of the most exceptional pilots of his race.

"The time line has been altered, the time line must be corrected," spoke the voice.

Mike looked around the Bridge. There was no one else present except for the duty officers.

"It is part of your final destiny, the time line must be corrected," it continued.

"Who's that?" asked Mike aloud.

Savok turned to look at him, "Are you alright Sir? To whom were you speaking?"

Mike looked at his first officer, "I thought I heard a voice."

Savok glanced round the Bridge then spoke back to his Captain, "I do not see anyone who is not supposed to be on the Bridge."

"I'll just sit down, maybe I got a head rush when I got up too quick."

"Should I ask Doctor Pel to check you over?"

"That will not be necessary Savok." Mike sat back down and closed his eyes to clear his head. "Rescue her, the cost will be huge but you must rescue her," it continued.

An image of a woman appeared in his mind, a brunette with blue eyes, slim face and build. The image started to change, looking gaunt, eyes more sunken; her build a whole lot slimmer, thinner maybe. Why was she important to him? He'd never met her before, yet he knew her, he knew her name…but at this point in time it eluded him. He had once considered her for his First Officer position but opted for Commander Savok, so she must have stayed on her ship. Why was he being shown her? What was it about her?

"Save her to save us," spoke the voice.

Mike wiped his face with his hands and got up, "Commander, I will be in my Ready room. I need to look over some crew personnel files."

"Aye sir," replied Savok taking the centre seat as Mike left for his ready room to do a lot of searching through the Starfleet database.

High above the planet Veron Six orbited Starbase Epsilon Piper Four, a backwater retreat for ships on long distance missions. The USS Hetrick was docked at the Station, its personnel on shore leave before their next, crucial mission. Lieutenant Paul Galloway was sat in the Stations bar, drowning his sorrows. He'd recently transferred to the USS Hetrick following the loss of the previous ship that he had been serving on. On that mission, the ship had been destroyed, but the crew did escape in evacuation pods; at least most of the crew had escaped from the encounter with the Romulans. He'd seen his wife's pod, along with a few others fired upon and destroyed. It was at that point that he had decided that he was going to leave Starfleet, but Captain Beverly Gordon had persuaded him otherwise. Still the loss of Katherine Galloway was too much to take. When he'd seen her pod blown to smithereens, he'd lost the will to live.

The USS Hetrick rescued him, along with another hundred of his crewmates. The Captain had ordered his crew, when they had abandoned ship to go into separate directions for a better chance of survival; yet his wife didn't survive. No, she was killed and now he was here, in this bar, drinking. He had nothing else to do, nothing to care about. He surveyed the patrons and located a Nausican. They were known as fighters. He was determined to have a fight. Maybe the Nausican would knife and kill him. Then he'd be with his wife. He started his approach to the Nausican; as he got closer it occurred to him that this Nausican was bigger than he'd first thought, _'Good. This should be over quick'_.

He never got the chance to find out though as Lieutenant Scott Hawkins suddenly appeared from nowhere and blocked his path. Scott looked at Paul and then quickly surveyed the situation. Within a matter of seconds, he instantly knew what Paul was up to. "You're not starting a fight with him. He _will_ pulverize you."

"That's the idea," replied Paul, "You're not going to stop me this time."

"Actually, I am. You're off the ship when you're supposed to be on duty in Engineering. If I have to take you back to the ship unconscious, then I will. Captain's orders."

"You can't do this," pleaded Paul.

"Actually, as Chief Tactical Officer I can, and will." Scott quickly grabbed hold of Paul by his shoulder and spoke, "Energize!" Both of them disappeared in a shimmer of light and rematerialized on the pad in transporter room one on the USS Hetrick. "Ok, you have a few choices, either return to Engineering, accompany me to the Brig or report to the Captain." Paul looked at Scott; he could see on his face that he was deadly serious. "You promised me months ago that you would look at this, that if there was a small chance, a remote chance."

"I've studied Romulan tactics ever since I left the Academy. This approach is something new. If I am right, then she is still alive."

"Have you mentioned this to the Captain?" asked Paul, in the hope that a rescue mission could be set up.

"I've served with the Captain since I graduated. She will not risk the ship until we have proof."

"Do you have proof or is this just a theory you have?"

"I'm still looking into this. I need time."

Paul looked Scott directly in the eyes. Scott's arms were crossed, his face unflinching. He stared back at Paul until Paul's right fist landed Scott flat onto his back, "You've already had two years. I'm off to Engineering."

Scott sat himself on the edge of the transporter platform, rubbing his face. "Every bleeding time."

Mike was in his Ready room reviewing the personnel files of all the officers that he had considered for the position of First Officer. No, he had no doubts that he had the correct one; he just wanted to find out what had happened to one of the candidates who wanted to be his First Officer. Within a matter of hours, he had located the file. The name seemed familiar but also wrong, he stared at the screen, looking at it. The name read _Katherine Galloway. _

"That's not right, it can't be" he spoke, but there it was on the screen. He cleared his eyes with his hand, and looked at the screen again, the name read _Katherine Malloy. _He reached over and switched off the monitor and then switched it back on, the name showed as _Katherine Galloway. _The name was back. He turned away from the screen and spoke aloud, "Computer, current information on Katherine Galloway please."

The female voice of the computer spoke after a few moments of searching for the file, "Commander Katherine Galloway. First Officer on the USS Genesis, NCC two three six nine six. Decorated with the 'Silver Cross' for Valor. Current status: Deceased. USS Genesis was destroyed two and a half years ago in an encounter with the Romulans. She is succeeded by her husband, Lieutenant Paul Galloway, Deputy Chief Engineer of Ambassador class, USS Hetrick NCC two one zero seven one."

Mike closed his eyes to think, "Rescue her to save us," spoke the voice once again.

Mike stood up and paced round his ready room, the voice was trying to tell him something. Had he imagined that second name; the screen had clearly shown the name Galloway, yet there was the name Malloy. "Computer, current location of the USS Hetrick?"

"The USS Hetrick is currently stationed at Starbase Epsilon Piper Four."

"Computer, how long would it take to reach Epsilon Piper Four at Warp Five?"

"It would take three days, six hours and forty seven minutes to reach Starbase Epsilon Piper Four from our current location."

Mike left his ready room and entered the Bridge,

"Captain on the Bridge" announced Meredith Farrar at his entry.

Commander Savok stood up from the centre seat to allow his Commanding Officer to sit down, "That will not be necessary Commander. I need you to stay on the Bridge for a short while. I will be in my Ready room as I need to make contact with Captain Gordon."

"Captain Gordon? Commanding Officer of the USS Hetrick? If memory serves, they are currently on assignment at Veron Six."

"That's correct. Your memory is as impeccable as ever." Captain Delany turned towards Kalar, "Set course for Starbase Epsilon Piper Four, Warp Five."

"Aye sir."

"Captain, that course correction will take us away from our current assignment. Starfleet will not approve of us leaving our current mapping mission. The Bajorans are needing this area completely mapped and planets assigned from it for us to complete our treaty with them. Their ambassador, Kel Aniyan is due to rendezvous with us in exactly one weeks time to confirm the mapping information and sign the treaty. It will take us approximately four days to travel to Veron Six. We will not have enough time to travel back to complete our mission." Mike looked at his First Officer, but the way that he looked at him was different; it was like he was looking through him, like Savok wasn't the First Officer. "You're right, of course. Helm, increase to warp eight."

"Sir, I cannot recommend this course of action."

"Commander, as my First Officer I expect you to follow my orders."

"Captain I have no issue with following your orders, as long as the reason behind them is understood and logical."

"I have reason to believe that Captain Gordon could use our assistance, our personnel to help with their mission."

"As I understand the Hetrick's current mission is routine patrols of the Romulan Federation Neutral Zone. I don't believe that the Merrimac's presence will be of assistance to her. I fail to understand the logic in this course of action."

Mike looked at his first officer, "Sometimes logic doesn't work. If it turns out that the Hetrick doesn't require us, then we can still get back here and resume our mapping mission. Correct?"

"At Warp Eight, I believe that we will have enough time to complete the mission, providing no problems present themselves."

"Excellent." Mike went back into his Ready room, sat himself back down and the voice once again spoke out, "Rescue her, save her, save us."

Lieutenant Rochelle Smith, Chief Medical Officer of the USS Hetrick was attending to Scott Hawkins, "Minor bruising to your face Lieutenant. You know you really should report this behavior of his to the Captain." Lieutenant Hawkins rubbed his face, the bruising now subsiding, "That won't help him Roch. What he really needs is what I cannot provide at the moment. How can I go to the Captain with a theory?"

"It could save her life."

"Assuming she is alive. I've reviewed the footage from his escape pod over and over again. I'm convinced she is alive; the way the Romulan ship specifically selected it's targets."

Scott got down from the bio bed and walked over to one of the wall displays, "He needs his wife back. I'm sure that the Romulan's must have scanned her pod and transported her onboard before it was destroyed."

Rochelle put down the Tricorder that she was adjusting and approached Scott, "Tell the Captain. She knows you are our expert on Romulans. You studied them throughout your Academy days. It's why you picked this assignment."

"She will not enter the neutral zone without proof. Besides where do we look? The Romulan Empire is huge."

"Where would you take her?" Scott turned round and leaned against the panel; it made a quiet _bbbzzzttt_ noise which quickly made Scott move once again, "If I was a Romulan, I would take her to a remote location. Maybe Franquila. It's remote, near the border but not guarded so it wouldn't draw attention to itself. No ships fly there, therefore it's uninhabited, or so they want us to think."

"What makes you say that?"

"Every night when I'm not on duty, I set the long range scanners to detect low frequency transmissions on frequencies that I know are used by Romulans. Every so often, a transmission leak comes from the planet. I cannot explain why they are detected, if the planet is uninhabited?"

"Have you told the Captain of this?"

"No, I don't think it's enough to go on. It could be a remote relay Station. It could be anything. I can't tell Paul this in case it gets his hopes up. I can't bring it to the Captain either. I could go alone in a shuttle to try to check it out-" Rochelle cut him off before he could finish his sentence, "That could cost you your position. You've worked hard to become Tactical Chief on here, besides what if it was true, what if you got captured?" Scott smiled at Rochelle, "Never happen. I'm too good to ever be captured by the Romulans."

"Good, because I wouldn't want to lose you to them. I've seen Paul's anguish and wouldn't wish that on anyone."

"Neither would I," confirmed Scott, "If she is alive, I don't think I could ever imagine what she is, would be or has gone through. I don't think I'd be here if it was me." Rochelle put her hand over Scott's mouth, "Don't say that. You're stronger than you let on."

"Maybe. Thankfully I will never need to know." Both Scott and Rochelle held onto each other for a while, both happy in each other's embraces.

"Captains Personal Log,

Stardate 45131.8, I am making this log entry secure. I have recently been hearing a voice in my head; I think I am the only one who is hearing it. I have seen images; a ship that I don't recognize yet is familiar, a planet that I don't recognize, a female who I think I once considered as a first officer for my ship. These images are just some of the things that I cannot figure out their meaning.

The voices have mentioned something about this timeline being wrong. Should I take it that I am not supposed to be here, that I am not supposed to be Captain of the USS Merrimac or even supposed to be a Captain? The phrases, the words I cannot remember now; maybe I imagined it. Maybe I am going mad and should have Dr Hadrius Pel check me out. God knows? I've currently set the Merrimac on a course to rendezvous with the USS Hetrick; her crew has one member who used to be on the USS Genesis. He is the widower of its First Officer. I am hoping that he can help shed some light onto this? What is the significance of his wife? How does she fit into this equation? What is it about this dead woman that has compelled me to abandon my current mission on what is possibly a wild goose chase? Commander Savok has so far indulged me in this, however his Vulcan nature is making him question my judgment in this matter. He knows what we are doing can risk the fragile treaty we hold with the Bajorans. I have been in communication contact with Captain Beverly Gordon of the USS Hetrick. I've not been able to tell her too much; how would it sound if I told her about this voice that I have been hearing? All I've asked, which she has granted, is an audience with Lieutenant Paul Galloway, her Deputy Chief Engineer. Maybe he can confirm that the person who I have seen in my mind is his wife, I might then have a lead as to what to do, where to go. He might even know what the planet is that I have seen. I have too many questions and not enough answers for this puzzle. All I know is that if I am wrong on any of this, then Starfleet could potentially strip me of my command, due to my course of actions. As I understand, Kel Aniyan is not someone to be trifled with; her reputation in the Cardassian Bajoran war spoke volumes for them defeating the Cardassians. I have no wish to plunge the Federation into war with them; we have enough trouble with the Romulans."

Captain Delany finished his log entry and leaned back in his chair in his Ready room. He again wondered why he was doing this?

"Correct the time line," spoke the voice once again, "The timing is near."

"Captain, we are approaching Epsilon Piper Four. You asked to be notified upon our approach."

"Understood Savok. I'm on my way to the Bridge. Open hail to the dock master at the Station." Once Mike had arrived onto the Bridge, Meredith Farrar advised that the Dock Master was on the line, "Merrimac, this is an unexpected pleasure. You're not scheduled to arrive here within this current mission period of yours. You're quite a way out of your mission area. Is there any reason for your visit?"

"We are here to see the Captain of the USS Hetrick."

"Very well Merrimac. Proceed to docking Station port Alpha Five. Third level. Starboard side of the Station. I can allow you six hours before the Berlin is due to dock there. You'll be next to the Hetrick. Dock Master Henderson out." The screen went back to the image of the docking yard on the Station. The docking lights on the third level of the starboard side of the Station suddenly came on. "That must Alpha Five."

"Indeed Captain, the Hetrick must be in Alpha Four," commented Savok.

Mike did a customary nod to Savok to confirm the same thing; he then turned to Meredith, "Send a message to Captain Gordon. Ask her to meet me in the Station's Observation lounge. Ask her to bring Lieutenant Galloway with her."

"Understood sir. Sending message now."

Within an hour, Captain Delany, Captain Gordon and Lieutenant Galloway were in the Station's Observation lounge. "Well Captain. I'm indulging you in this, only because it might allow my Lieutenant a bit of closure. Exactly why did you request this meeting?" asked Beverly Gordon. Paul Galloway looked nervous in the presence of both Captains. Mike produced a PADD, which held an image of a person on it, except that he'd got Commander Savok to help him age the image of this person to look more gaunt, more frail. He handed it to Paul. Paul looked at it for a few moments, "What is this?" he asked, not sure what or who he was looking at.

"Look closely Lieutenant. I need to know, do you recognize her?"

Paul looked again at the image, "It looks like Katherine, but she was killed almost three years ago." He threw the PADD across the room, "What sick game are you playing Captain? Don't you think I have suffered enough already? I keep reliving the moment of her death every day." He turned towards Beverly and continued, "Hawkins thinks that she might still be alive; he has some bizarre theory that she was captured by the Romulans. He hasn't mentioned it to you because he feels that you won't do anything," vented Paul in frustration.

Beverly for her part didn't respond directly to Paul's frustration.

Instead all she did was touch her Communicator badge and spoke, "This is Captain Gordon. Send Lieutenant Hawkins over to the Observation lounge on the Station, top priority. Anything else he is working on will have to wait."

"Understood Captain", came the reply.

Mike left his seat and picked up the PADD and changed the image. "This planet, I've tried to reproduce on this PADD as best as I can from memory. Do you recognize it Lieutenant?" Paul picked up the PADD and studied the picture of the planet. Nothing about it struck out at him. "Sir, with respect. I'm an Engineer. I spend most of my time in the depths of the Hetrick. I have no chance of seeing any planets from where I am based. Even on Away missions, I only see the surface, nothing from above. You're talking to the wrong person."

"I see," said Mike, disappointment in his voice.

"Captain, Mike" spoke Beverly, "What exactly is this all about? I know what your current mission is. You are putting the fate of the Federation at risk by this. You are risking war with the Bajorans. Why ask to see us?"

Mike, still on his feet after having presented Paul with the PADD spoke once again, "What I have to tell you, stays in this room. Even my First Officer doesn't know about this. I cannot explain this without sounding like I should be relieved of command, except that…"

Mike looked at them both, hesitantly. "I've been seeing images of things, places,"

He looked at Paul as he continued, "People, I keep hearing a voice, telling me that the timeline is wrong-"

"You aren't thinking of interfering with the timeline continuity are you?" interrupted Beverly.

"No. I needed to find out if anyone else recognized the person on the PADD. I see her in my dreams; she's gaunt, weak. I think I'm being told to rescue her." Paul looked at the PADD once more and switched back to the image of the woman. Yes, she was gaunt, she looked older somehow, but he wasn't too sure. Paul linked it up with the Stations computer, accessed his own files from the Hetrick and overlaid an image of his beloved wife. "Yes, it could be her. But she looks so different," spoke Paul solemnly.

At that point, Lieutenant Scott Hawkins entered the room, "Captain you requested to see me," Upon noticing the presence of Paul and another Starfleet Captain, Scott paused. "What's going on?"

"Lieutenant, may I introduce Captain Delany, of the USS Merrimac. Captain, this is Lieutenant Scott Hawkins, our Chief Tactical Officer and also our resident expert on the Romulans. He spent most of his time at the Academy studying them. That is why he is on this assignment; so far whenever we have had an encounter with the Romulans, thanks to our Lieutenant, we have emerged victorious."

"I see. Welcome Lieutenant," greeted Mike, as he invited Scott to take a seat next to Paul. Paul himself was still flicking through the three images now: that of his wife, the older gaunt version of her and the planet.

It wasn't until the planet appeared back on the display that Scott spoke up, "Why have you got an image of Franquila on the PADD?"

Mike suddenly looked at him, "You know this planet? You know where it is Lieutenant?"

"Yes Sir. It looks like the planet Franquila. It's a planet in Romulus space. It's not very heavily protected. It doesn't have much in the way of Romulan ships protecting it although it does have some level of transmissions emanating from it. Communication frequencies I believe."

"You never mentioned this to me Lieutenant," admonished Beverly, "How do you know this?"

"I set the sensors to monitor the Romulan Neutral Zone for Transmissions on Romulan frequencies. I do it as Tactical Officer. It means that we are always prepared for any situation that might arise."

"Except this," commented Paul who had been quiet until now. "You should have mentioned this. She's alive isn't she?" He looked to Captain Delany, "You've seen her; Scott knows the planet. What is she to you? Scott thinks that the Romulans could have beamed her onto their ship before her evacuation pod was destroyed."

"Slow down Lieutenant. This could be one big coincidence."

Mike sat down to think.

"Rescue her, save her, save us," came the voice.

Mike looked to Beverly, "When are you due out on patrol next?"

"We are here for another five days before we leave on our next patrol. Why do you ask?"

"What I'm about to ask of you is big. If it fails, it could be the end of our commissions. I need you to complete our mapping mission for my crew. It will hopefully allow us to keep the peace with the Bajorans."

"If we are doing the mapping mission, which I haven't said we'd agree to, what would you be doing instead?" asked Beverly, even though she thought she might already know the answer. "I need to pay a visit to Franquila, to find out if she is there. If she is, I need to rescue her. I don't know why, but I just know if she is alive, she must be rescued."

Beverly looked at Mike for a few moments, "You're going to do this regardless aren't you? Lieutenant Hawkins inadvertently has just confirmed what you wanted to know."

"He has and I intend to. I think there is more to her than what we think. I have to rescue her."

"With respect Captain, you won't make it. I cannot change the mission of the Hetrick to satisfy your possible need to do this. You also know that it is my duty to report this."

"I know Captain, but what if rescuing her could help us?"

"If my wife is alive Captain, I have to know. Please, I request to join Captain Delany on this mission. She needs me, as I need her."

Scott broke into this, "Captain, I know you will not risk your ship on this mission, I think Captain Delany will. He won't make it though."

"Thank you Lieutenant," said Beverly, glad that she had his support.

"No Captain, I mean he will need an expert in Romulan society, technology and language. He will need me," finished Scott.

"I'm not risking my ship Lieutenant," declared Captain Gordon, though she started to realize what he was going to say next.

Scott, as good a Tactical Officer as he was wanted to test himself even more against the Romulans, than just in the occasional skirmishes that the Hetrick had encountered. "Captain, request temporary reassignment to the Merrimac. Captain Delany will need all the help that he can."

"Lieutenant," said Captain Delany, "There's no guarantee that she will be there."

"Sir, I've studied the Romulans since my days starting out in the Academy. There's no one more qualified in what I can do than me. You need me. You need me to get to the planet, as only I know where it is; you need me in case you cannot operate any of the Romulan equipment. Should they detect you, how will you know? I have knowledge, if only basic of the Romulan Dialect. You _need_ my help."

"Very well. I will grant you a temporary reassignment on the Merrimac, until the end of this mission with Captain Gordon's permission. But I need you Captain Gordon to complete the mapping mission for me. Please, I don't ask this lightly," said Mike.

"Very well. Scott you will transfer over, as an exchange officer with the Merrimac. Be sure to send me over your own Tactical Officer Captain, to make this more official."

"Sir," interrupted Paul, "Starfleet will know both ships have swapped assignments. You will need to change the Warp Signatures of both ships to make it look like neither has left its current assignment. I can make the Merrimac look like the Hetrick until we reach Romulan space then I could, with Scott's help make it look like a Romulan vessel when we cross the Neutral Zone. It should give us a better chance of success."

"Very well Lieutenant, I will transfer you over as well. Captain, send me your Deputy Engineer. He can work with my Chief to make us look like you," said Beverly. "It appears Lieutenant that you might be reunited with your wife after all. I prey that you are. And Captain, I prey that you know what you are doing."

"Rescue her, save her, save us, save him," came the voice; only this time both Scott and Paul heard it as well as Mike.

To Be Continued…


	2. S1 E2 - Times Destiny (Part Two)

STAR TREK - REVELATION

**Episode 002 – Times Destiny (Part Two)**

_Pen Name: Stringyfellow_

The Merrimac was cruising slowly towards Franquila having departed from Starbase Epsilon Piper Four three days earlier. Captain Delany sat in his Ready room, thinking as he made his log entry:

"Captain's Log, Star date 45133.1"

"Once again this log entry has been classified, made secure so that if anything happens to us, Starfleet will have a permanent record of what we were trying to achieve. The USS Hetrick has set of on the mapping mission that we were undertaking. Our records of the maps that we had constructed have been transferred over to them. We have also provided details of our Warp signature and they have supplied us with theirs. Hopefully operating on the others signatures will dispel any doubts that either starship has diverged from it's current assignment. What would Starfleet think if they knew that we were going to cross over the Neutral Zone in a Science vessel? This ship is not designed for combat. I can only hope that we can accomplish our mission using subterfuge. That being said, I have to rely on Lieutenant Hawkins' knowledge with Romulan society, culture, technology and battle strategies to allow us to complete this. I can only hope that he knows what he is doing as our lives may depend on how good he is or how good he thinks he is. Right now, he is in a meeting with Commander Savok and Lieutenant Galloway, whose wife we believe is a prisoner on the planet Franquila, discussing strategies. This is one meeting that I intend to be in on, as the knowledge will give us a chance of saving the Merrimac, should it come to that." With his long entry complete, secure in his personal database locked by encryption code, he left for the Conference lounge.

In the Conference lounge were Commander Savok, Lieutenant Galloway and Lieutenant Hawkins. They were in the final stages of discussing the rescue mission when Captain Delany entered. He sat down in one of the chairs to listen to the remainder of the discussion. Anything that he had missed he would be briefed about at the end of the meeting by his Vulcan First Officer who would also be leading the mission, it was at this point that Savok was addressing the other two officers, both who were on temporary assignment to the USS Merrimac.

"The most important thing is to keep the deception of the Merrimac appearing as a Romulan Vessel. The longer they fail to detect us, the greater our chance of success."

"Agreed Commander Savok," spoke Lieutenant Hawkins.

"What we need is for the Chief Engineer to ensure that the Warp Engines produce a harmonic signature that makes us look Romulan from a long distance."

"The Warp signature can be altered, but it will not pass closer inspection should they want to look us over. What happens if they try to make contact?" asked Mike.

"I'll be on the Bridge. Should they wish to contact us, we do it on audio and I will speak with them."

"You will speak with to them Lieutenant?" asked Mike, slightly shocked by this.

"Ever since I joined Starfleet, I have studied as much as I could about the Romulans; their use of equipment, spoken languages and dialects, written text, weapons systems. Every little scrap of information that I could get hold of, by hook or by crook, I took it and studied it."

"What else will we need to do?" asked Savok, who as First officer wanted to make sure that every contingency had been taken into account.

"The tricky point is going to be hiding the Merrimac once we get to Franquila. How do we hide a ship?" asked Scott, looking directly as Paul who had yet to mention anything in the meeting. Paul himself had his mind pre-occupied on his wife. This was the closest he had ever got to or thought he would get to see or even rescue Katherine Galloway.

"Well Lieutenant?" asked Captain Delany.

"Sir?" said Paul, shook out of his thoughts by the Captain speaking to him,

"How do we hide the Merrimac when get to Franquila?"

Paul thought for a moment. "Without the use of a cloaking device, we can't. All we could do is an old trick of putting the ship in a direct orbit above the planets magnetic pole. The pole might mask our presence, might."

"The Away team will need to be kept to a minimum. Only necessary personnel," added Savok after a moments thought. "Naturally I will lead the Away team. Lieutenant Hawkins, you will monitor the situation from the Bridge, as Romulan and Vulcan technology will not be that much different from each other-"

"You couldn't be further from the truth even if an Romulan Torpedo struck you directly and you considered it to be a Vulcan Probe. Ever since the Romulans separated themselves from Vulcan society, they have done everything possible to make certain that they cannot be directly linked to you," interrupted Scott who slid a PADD across the Conference room table. "Read that. If you do it successfully, then I will stay with the Ship. If you can't, then I'm on the Away team."

Savok picked up the PADD and looked it over, his frown deepening as he concentrated on the PADD.

"Well?" prompted Scott.

Savok looked directly at Scott, back to the PADD and finally back to Scott, "It reads that you will be needed for the mission after all."

Scott looked Savok directly in the face and slowly smiled; a smile that had an edge of cockiness about it. Mike saw the look and made a mental note to keep an eye on Lieutenant Hawkins, as he might be more bravado than experienced with the Romulans. Mike knew he was a good judge of character but now he had a doubt about this officer, however he also knew he needed him for this mission. He decided to re-evaluate this officer once the mission had been completed.

Paul spoke up dragging Mike out of his thoughts, "I need to be on it as well."

"I fail to understand what possible experience you could offer to the team?" spoke Savok.

Paul looked him up too, "Katherine is my wife. I will be able to tell how she is-"

"Are you medically trained?" interrupted Savok.

"No, but I know my wife, she will respond to me," answered Paul rather sharply.

"Lieutenant, emotional attachment might not be the best trait to have on this mission," informed Mike to Lieutenant Galloway.

"If that is the case, why did you allow me to transfer over? She will respond to me. All we need to know is, if she is okay to be beamed onto the ship. When we joined the academy, we all got basic medical training, including how to use Medical Tricorders. She might consider your presence a trick by the Romulans; I will be able to reassure her and get her to come with us."

"Very well Lieutenant, you've made your case. Commander, will you need anyone else?"

"Lieutenant Hawkins will be able to double up as Security due to his Tactical training. Lieutenant Galloway will suffice for engineering options should we require them, however I would prefer to have a qualified doctor with us. They will do a better job for assessing Lieutenant Commander Galloway, no offence Lieutenant," spoke Savok as he looked to Paul.

"None taken."

"Any preference?" asked Mike.

"Ensign Jones should suffice. His training will be more than adequate. I would rather keep the number of senior officers to a minimum on this mission should it fail."

"Agreed Commander," addressed Mike to his First Officer. He turned and looked at the old antique clock he had on the wall, "Well gentlemen, it appears that we have five hours before we enter the Neutral Zone. Lieutenant Hawkins, I suggest you accompany Lieutenant Galloway down to Engineering. Provide them with the necessary information on Romulan Shield harmonics to make us look as authentic as possible."

"Aye sir," replied Scott as both he and Paul left the Conference lounge. Commander Savok stayed in the lounge with the Captain.

"You have something you wish to ask Commander?"

"Sir, with respect, Starfleet doesn't know about this mission, does it?"

"No Commander it doesn't. If Starfleet did, they would never authorize this cause of action."

"You do understand that I would be in my rights to relieve you of command for acting erratically and provoking an interstellar war with the Romulans by entering the Neutral Zone."

"So what is stopping you Commander? You would be neglect in your duties if you didn't."

"We have known each other a long time. I have never known you to take an action without either a logical reason or an extremely high chance of success. This course of action appears to have neither."

"If I were to tell you the reasons, you would have me medically sectioned," replied Mike, brushing his hand through his hair as he contemplated informing his First Officer; a Vulcan who only knows logic, his reasons for this; the voice that he kept hearing, the voice that had now gone quiet.

"What if Commander, this war with the Bajorans could have been prevented? What if this timeline was somehow faulty?"

"By that reasoning Sir, no one would know. From that point of view, all other timelines could also be incorrect. Logically, you could not correct the timeline."

"Couldn't I?" asked Mike.

Commander Savok looked over his Commanding Officer; assessing whether his Captain had indeed lost his mind or if he actually believed that he could change this timeline. "If I might ask, how do you know?"

"What if they were entities that knew but maybe couldn't interact directly? Maybe they need us interact for them."

"Then they might use us to change the timeline for the worse as well Sir. Had that thought not occurred to you?"

Mike turned to look at his Vulcan First Officer; they had indeed been through a lot together but Savok had never been able to grasp this human ability to take great leaps of faith when logic dictated otherwise. On the occasions that a leap of faith was required, it had always worked and that surprised Savok every time, as logically these leaps of faith should never have worked. The odds were always against them, they went against every logical conclusion that Savok had evaluated would happen but still seemed to succeed.

Mike needed Savok to take a leap of faith now. "If they were wanting the timeline altering, to make it worse, then why ask us to rescue someone?"

"Logically, because it means we will violate the treaty we have with the Romulans by crossing the Neutral Zone and starting an interstellar war."

"Savok, I need you to take the biggest leap of faith that you can with this."

"Sir, this isn't a logical course of action."

"If it was a logical course of action, then the Romulans would be expecting us to violate the Neutral Zone; as it stands since this isn't a logical course of action, the Romulans would not be looking for a Federation Ship crossing the Neutral Zone, therefore logically, we have a greater chance of success by their lack of action."

Savok looked at him, evaluating the words and logic behind his Captain's words and actions, "I shall have the Away team ready for when we enter orbit around Franquila Sir."

With that said, he left the room onto the Bridge. Mike himself stayed in the Conference Lounge gazing out at the stars, thinking to himself of how he would cope should the worse happen, should they fail in their mission and all of them be captured or killed.

How would he cope knowing that he had condemned his crew to being prisoners of the Romulans.

"The Merrimac will not be lost to the Romulans, that is not her fate. Save her, save us," spoke the static voice, as if hearing his concerns over his crew and his ship.

Lieutenant Hawkins leaned against the wall of the Turbo lift as it approached Engineering; Lieutenant Galloway was looking at him, sizing him up. Finally he couldn't hold back any longer and spoke to Scott, "What exactly was on that PADD that made Savok change his mind?"

Scott slowly smiled, "I wrote it myself in Romulan. It more or less called Savok an illogical hob goblin."

"You put that on the PADD? If he had been able to read that, you could have been stopped from going onto the Away team."

"True. I gambled that he couldn't."

"Gambled?" asked Paul, who slowly started putting the pieces of this together, "You still think this is a theory. You think this is a game? You want to test your skills in this regardless of whether she's there or not?"

Scott for his part looked taken back by this. "What makes you think or even say that?"

"I can read you. I'm an Empath and right now you are an open book to me."

He approached Scott and grabbed the front of his uniform, "You screw this up and I'll make you pay for it with your very existence. You don't play games with the life of my wife."

The Turbo lift stopped in Engineering and Scott quickly separated himself from Paul, "I'm not playing a game. She's there. I heard a voice whilst we were on the Station, telling me to rescue her, to save her. The stakes are too high in this to play it as a game. I'm going down there with Savok with just one aim, to rescue your wife. The games I play, I never lose."

With that said, he exited the lift and turned towards the main Engineering Console where Chief Jackson Bartel was working.

"Savok has sent me down to liaise with you over changing the Shield Harmonics and Warp Signature to emit Romulan Energy pulses from them. We need to disguise the Ship to appear to be a Romulan Scout vessel. It's the closest I can come up with that matches our size."

"Very well, I will need to see the Harmonic Frequencies. Lieutenant Galloway, I will need you up by the main Deflector Control room. From their you can help recalibrate our systems."

"Aye Chief," spoke Paul as he turned to leave for the main Deflector Array. He locked eyes with Scott and only this time instead of them showing signs of anger, there was pleading in them, as if he was telling Scott not to screw this up.

On the Bridge of the Merrimac, Captain Delany sat in his Command chair waiting to give the command to switch frequencies. Lieutenant Commander Farrar spoke up from her station, "Thirty minutes until we cross the Neutral Zone at current speed."

"Thank you Meredith. Engineering now!" he ordered to the open intercom.

The Merrimac came to a full stop, shut down and then restarted back up at impulse speed. "Sir we are now emitting energy pulses on Romulan settings, as provided by Lieutenant Hawkins. Estimate Franquila in fifteen hours, thirty seven minutes present speed," informed Ensign Kalar.

"Good. Savok, your team has a ten-hour rest period. I suggest you use it. Lieutenant Hawkins, this rest period includes you. I need you rested as well; should any Romulan Vessels start to get close to us, then we will notify you to the Bridge immediately."

"Aye Captain, I understand."

"Good. Ten hours isn't long, you might not get that long to rest. Take what rest time you can." Mike stood up and spoke, "Lieutenant Farrar, I want you to take the Bridge for the next five hours, I will then relieve you for you to get a rest bite before we arrive at Franquila."

"Aye Captain," she responded as she stepped down to take command of the Merrimac.

The rest period was cut short by six hours with a sudden jolt to the Ship. Captain Delany woke with a start, "Bridge, this is the Captain. Report."

"Captain," responded Lieutenant Commander Farrar, "It looks like we crossed into the path of a temporal wake."

"Temporal wake?" asked Mike as he got himself dressed, "Why didn't the Sensors detect it?"

"We didn't expect to come across anything like this. It could be a single phenomenon, like a temporal string. We had no way to detect it."

"Could it present a problem for us?"

"Not that we think, however if the Romulans come across one, they might send a ship or two to investigate it. That could then lead them to detect and investigate us."

"That we will deal with if the need arises. Get Commander Savok to work with Chief Engineer Bartel. We need them to come up with a way to detect these temporal strings."

"What if we can't detect them?"

"Then we will just have to hope and prey that we don't come across any more."

"Understood Captain, I will contact Commander Savok immediate-"

Before Lieutenant Commander Farrar could finish, the Red Alert siren sounded out loud. "Commander, what's going on?"

"The Red Alert has been triggered by a distress call from a Federation Starship."

As Mike continued the conversation, he was already out of his cabin and on his way to the Bridge, though before he asked his next question his mind already told him the answer, "Which ship has sent out the distress call?"

"It is coming from the USS Hetrick. We have an audio signal coming through from them."

Mike quickly tapped his communicator and requested the Transporter Chief to beam him direct to the Bridge. Mike appeared in a shimmer of light and continued, "I want the Audio signal on the speakers now, record it though."

"This is Kel Aniyan, leader of the New Bajoran Military Intelligence. We have seized control of the Federation Vessel Hetrick. We decided to check to see how the mapping mission was proceeding only to find that the Federation had laid a trap for us by leaving a Battle Cruiser waiting for us. The ploy failed! The crew is now dead and we have discovered your new plan of forming an alliance with the Romulans in an attempt to overpower us. You will never succeed in this. Be warned we will make it to the rendezvous at the planet Franquila before you manage to sign any new treaty. This is now an act of war that has been declared against us. And all the Federation worlds and ships will pay. Captain Delany, if you can hear this, your treachery has undone all the good work that your diplomats spent years trying to achieve. The blood of Captain Beverly Gordon is now on your hands."

All the crew officers on the Bridge were now looking directly at the Captain, trying to work out what he had done. They knew that they had changed mission, but they thought the Federation had authorized it. Now apparently they hadn't.

Mike sat down for a moment in his chair; trying to work out how the hell does he correct something like this?

Ensign Kalar spoke up from his station, "Sir, is it true? Are we on a way to sign a treaty with the Romulans? We are heading to Franquila, the co-ordinates match to where we are heading."

Mike looked up at his Ensign. So this was how it started, one person speaking out, rumors spreading round the ship; he had to stop this head on.

Mike looked up to Meredith and spoke to her, "Intraship Communications. Now hear this, we are currently on a rescue mission to the planet Franquila. This is to rescue a member of Starfleet who has been held captive. We are not trying to sign a treaty with the Romulans, however we are now at war with the Bajorans. If our mission succeeds, then the War with the Bajorans will end, if we fail…well, I have no need to mention what will happen if we fail."

"Captain, was that wise?" asked Scott, who had apparently arrived on the Bridge along with Commander Savok and Lieutenant Galloway.

"Gentlemen, I'm glad that you are here. I regret to inform you that the Hetrick has been lost to the Bajorans. We are out of time for the rescue."

"NO!" shouted out Paul.

"Ensign, increase speed," ordered Scott.

"What the hell do you think you are doing Lieutenant?"

"Sir, we cannot give up. You can lock me up for this but I've heard a static type of voice, which I can't explain, telling me to rescue her. We have to try."

Mike looked at Scott, "You've heard the voice as well?"

"Sir," spoke Paul, "I've heard the voice too. Whatever this is, we have to follow this through now, for the sake of the Hetrick. If the Hetrick failed to stop the Bajorans, then we don't have a chance against them. Our only hope now is to try to make it to Franquila before the Bajorans."

Commander Savok who until this point had been quiet spoke up as well, "Logically, we cannot win in a firefight with the Bajorans. They know where we are heading; our only option now is to make it to Franquila before they do. If the mission succeeds, then all of this could potentially change. If we fail, we end up like Captain Gordon. You asked me to make a leap of faith, then I guess now is the time to blindly step into the unknown."

Mike knew where Savok was coming from; this was their only option now with the loss of Captain Gordon and the Crew of the Hetrick. Both Scott and Paul seemed to be holding up with the news of the loss of their previous ship. Mike turned towards his Ensign and confirmed Scott's order; now time was against them.

The planet Franquila was located near the Romulan Federation border. On it was a prison camp, used to hold captured enemies of the Romulan Empire.

The prison camp was not heavily protected. After all any prison camp would always be deep in enemy territory, not located near the border. It was designed that way to make it less obvious so it would never be located. No warships orbited it; if they did it would become obvious what it was. It was why it had never been located, why no one knew of its existence. Currently Franquila's Chief Interrogator was conducting another interrogation on prisoner zero one nine eight five three. This prisoner had a good level of self-preservation. She had survived for three years here, in the hope that somehow her husband would not have given up on her, that he would one day rescue her.

As each day went by though, slowly she started to wonder, had he given her up for dead? All the other prisoners who had survived that day when the Genesis was lost had slowly but surely given in to the inevitable. They knew there was no hope. Each day, the interrogator would throw her a lifeline for killing herself. Each day she resisted the temptation for the quick exit, the quick end but for how much longer could she resist?

Surely after a month they would have launched a rescue mission? When the Romulan vessel took her and other members of the crew, it flew deep into Romulan space however once it knew it was out of sensor range, it changed course for Franquila. That way no one would ever know how close the prisoners were to actually being able to be rescued.

"You have not eaten your meal prisoner. We could always force you to, however no matter. You will still be interrogated."

For the last few months, he never asked her any questions; he would just physically beat her and threaten to violate her. So far, he hadn't but she feared that one day he would.

Right now she wanted an end to it. She knew that a rescue was not going to happen and she needed a way to end it.

The Chief interrogator looked her over, smiled and spoke, "Looks like today is the day. I can see it in your face, you want out, you want to end it. It's not that easy, you've got to earn the right to end it. Let's see if you can," and with that, he entered her cell.

The Merrimac successfully made it to the planet Franquila without detection by the Romulans; it seemed that the Warp signature emissions that were emanating from the USS Merrimac had done their job of convincing any potential ships that they were Romulan. Ensign Kalor had also done an excellent job in piloting the Ship into the system, dropping out of warp almost above the planet, bringing the Ship into a vertical drop high above the planet's pole to enter a polar object, at the advice of Lieutenant Hawkins.

Captain Delany was impressed by both the tactical approach and the skill of his Helmsman. Now that they had made orbit, they would have to get in quick, rescue Katherine, if indeed she was there and get back to the ship and out of the system before the Bajorans arrived.

On the Transporter platform were Commander Savok, Lieutenant Hawkins, Lieutenant Galloway and Ensign Jones, who had his Medical kit ready.

Savok had programmed his Tricorder to scan for Katherine's bio signature.

Paul also had a Tricorder in case they needed to scan for life signs. Scott had the only phaser set to heavy stun, in case it was needed. The intercom sounded out, "Away team, we have entered orbit. There is a single Installation on the northern continent. We have sent the co-ordinates down to you. Chief, energize."

The Away team disappeared from the Transporter platform and rematerialized outside of the building that had been detected from orbit.

Scott quickly pushed Ensign Jones to the ground and signaled for Savok and Paul to drop to the ground. Two Romulan guards were patrolling the outside of the building. It looked like they might not have been spotted, but then again.

It looked like Paul hadn't got down quick enough as the guards were approaching his location where Savok was hiding as well. If they were to be captured, then that would mean that the Merrimac would be discovered in orbit. That would throw the rescue mission out.

Scott only had one chance; he leapt out of hiding and fired directly at the first Romulan, rolling back on to the ground and coming back up in a new line of sight to drop the second Romulan just as the first had hit the ground.

"Commander, are you okay?" asked Lieutenant Hawkins.

"I am fine; thanks in many ways to your quick reactions."

"Hurry, search the guards for an access key for the Installation. It might be quicker than trying to hack their control panel."

"A logical suggestion," confirmed Savok.

Sure enough the second centurion guard had an access key to the Installation.

"It could be possible that there might be more Romulan Centurions inside. We need to know how many. Paul, can you check to see how many are inside?"

Paul's hand flew over the controls and he started scanning. "The Tricorder cannot penetrate the inside of the building. We need something more powerful."

Commander Savok tapped his Communicator, "This is Savok, I need a scan on the Installation for Romulan life signs."

"If we scan, it could allow the Installation to detect us."

"The Installation could be detecting this transmission."

"Understood, we detect three more Romulan life signs inside the Installation. There are a further two outside, however they are grouped together and not moving, located five meters south west of your position."

Scott smiled, "That's the two guards on the outside that I took out."

"What about human life signs?" Paul asked.

"We are only detecting one at this point in time. If this is a Romulan prison camp, then I would hazard a guess that they are due more prisoners shortly," spoke Meredith through the Communicator back to Paul.

Scott looked to Paul, Gary then Savok, who advised them all to make a move towards the entrance of the Installation.

Kel Aniyan sat in the centre seat of her Flagship, '_The Vengeful prophet_', pleased with how her mission had gone so far. Her decision to pay an unexpected visit to the Federation ship USS Merrimac had paid off more than she had expected. The Federation Ship, USS Hetrick had been there in its place. Its Captain, some woman named Beverly Gordon had tried to reason with them.

Kel had liked Captain Gordon. She was a Captain who had her own ship, just like Kel. She was in charge of her own destiny, just like Kel, but unlike Kel, this Captain Gordon has tried to reason with her, to explain their purpose of why they were undertaking the mapping mission of the Merrimac. When she explained that the Merrimac had gone into the Romulan Neutral Zone to correct the time line by rescuing a prisoner, she knew she had to stop the Merrimac and she wasn't about to let this Federation Starship stand in her way, so she opened fire with the superior weapons at her disposal and obliterated the Hetrick.

There was no way she was going to let the Merrimac change the timeline, what would have happened to Bajor if the Bajorans hadn't overthrown the Cardassians? The Cardassians had been wiped out in their failed attempt at invading Bajor, Kel was now determined to make sure that the timeline stayed the way it was, if that meant declaring war against the Federation, then so be it. Right now, her flagship was almost upon Franquila and the future of the Bajorans was now in her hands. All she had to do was destroy the Merrimac and her people's destiny would be assured.

Having used the Centurions access key to enter the Installation, Gary Jones was able to use his Tricorder to home in onto Katherine's location. However first and foremost they would have to locate the remaining two Romulan guards. With only four guards based at the Installation, Savok surmised that they would probably be located in the main rest quarters. Savok's assumption was correct, fore sleeping on the bunks were both Centurions. Ensign Jones loaded his hypospray with hydrochloroform; he carefully entered into the chamber and injected the first Centurion with the hypospray, who fell completely unconscious.

The second centurion however was not as fortunate, as he was only partially asleep and heard the hiss of the hypospray and quickly leapt off his bunk, dived for his disruptor but failed as Lieutenant Hawkins phaser felled him.

"That Lieutenant was a mistake."

"We have two guards unconscious outside, one under thanks to Ensign Jones and that one now unconscious as well. How was that a mistake?"

"With the noise of your phaser, you have probably alerted the remaining Romulan. Since these are only guards, I would hypothesize that he or she will have heard it and would now be on alert for us. Our chances of rescuing Katherine safely have now been reduced."

Paul looked from Savok to Scott and back again, "Then lets get to her before they reduce further."

He quickly activated his Tricorder and started on a run to find his wife. Gary, Savok and Scott started to run after him with Savok drawing level, "What do you intend to do when you find her?"

"Rescue her?"

"And how do you intend to do that? Now is not the time for irrational actions."

"The logical course of action would to have been to never have started on this in the first place, but since we are here, we play it minute by minute."

"You intend to formulate a plan as we encounter each situation Lieutenant?"

"Do you have anything better?"

Before Savok could answer, Paul's Tricorder started to beep loudly, signaling that the person they were looking for was close by. Unfortunately, so too was the Romulan Interrogator.

The USS Merrimac was caught completely by surprise. The transmission that they had made to Commander Savok had allowed '_The Vengeful Prophet_' to locate the ship and they fired upon her straight away, striking down on the primary hull, blowing away the airlock doors on Deck Sixteen. The sudden strike and loss of pressure sent all the Bridge crew flying all over. Mike quickly shouted out, "Red alert, shields up!"

"Shields are going up but they are only at eighty percent power. Weapon systems are coming on line," responded Meredith Farrar, who had managed to get herself back to her feet as well and was already in the process of getting the shields up.

"Locate that ship? Is it Romulan?"

Ensign Kalar at the Helm was the first to locate it. "Bajoran Vessel directly above us, Vandren Class. It's the _Vengeful Prophet_, the Flagship of the Bajorans."

"That's Kel Aniyan's ship. If she took out the Hetrick," confirmed Meredith.

"I know, you don't have to finish that thought. Where is she now?"

"It's turning to make another run on us," replied Kalar, "bearing two seven six mark zero three five."

"It's locking weapons on the Engineering section," Meredith reported as she tried to increase the Shield strength to that location.

"Evasive manoeuvres. Break orbit. Get us out of here."

Kalar, as an Andorian was quick to respond to the instructions, however because Kel had fought and won against the Cardassians, she was quicker. Just as the Merrimac was breaking orbit, the Disruptors of the _Vengeful Prophet_ struck home and caused serious damage to the Engineering section.

The Ship started to list.

Back at the Installation, Paul, Savok, Scott and Gary had located the prison cell that held Katherine. Scott entered the room first and he soon went flying back out as the Romulan Interrogator struck him down.

Paul entered, saw the burly Romulan and moved backwards out of the room. Just as the Romulan left the room to seize Paul, Savok reached out and used the Vulcan nerve pinch to take out the final opponent.

Gary got Scott back onto his feet. "Are you okay sir?" he asked.

Scott rubbed his hand on his jaw, looked at Paul and replied, "I'm used to it."

"Gentlemen, if we are done with the banter, the Romulan will not stay down for long, due to his physical similarity with Vulcans. I suggest that we locate Lieutenant Commander Galloway and proceed back to the ship."

Upon Commander Savok's instruction, all of the Away team proceeded into the room indicated by the Tricorder. As they entered, they noticed that Katherine was lying on the floor of her cell, battered and bruised, the Chief Interrogator having enjoyed beating her once again to almost within an inch of her life.

Gary stepped over to the field and ran his Tricorder at her and reported that she was still alive, just barely.

Savok ordered Paul to get the Entrance field down on the cell.

Once it was down, Gary got closer to her to check her out. "She's weak. We need to get her out of here now."

Gary reached for her but she slowly moved away from him.

Paul moved over to the cell, "Katherine, it's me, it's Paul, your husband."

"Paul?" she replied looking up at him, but not really recognizing.

"It's me Katherine. We've come here to rescue you."

Savok touched his communicator, "Savok to Merrimac, standby to beam five up."

What Savok heard was not reassuring, "Commander Savok I presume,"

"To whom am I speaking?"

"This is Kel Aniyan, of the Bajoran Military intelligence. You will surrender yourselves immediately, otherwise I shall start to execute your fellow crew members, starting with the Captain, who as we speak is on his hands and knees before me."

Savok looked to Paul who shook his head. Scott, who was standing by the entrance with his phaser aimed at the fallen interrogator shouted into them, "He's coming round. We don't have time to waste. Keep an eye on that!" he instructed Gary as he passed the phaser to him.

He moved into the cell, "We've got to get her out of here now."

Scott reached out to grab Katherine, to get her out of there. They touched, they screamed out together and then…

…Chaos erupted!

Another volley of Torpedoes struck the Ship. "Shields have almost gone. I'm dropping the blast shields," reported Kel Aniyan from Tactical.

Mike, who found himself kneeling on the floor quickly shouted, "Ensign, seize her."

"Sir?" asked Ensign Fain, the Chief Helmsman.

Mike looked at his Helmsman, wondering why a Ferengi had replaced his Andorian helmsman. It was at that point that he also noticed that the Bridge was distinctly different to the one he was on. Disorientated, he maneuvered to his chair; as he did so, he glanced up at his captor Kel Aniyan. She was wearing the traditional yellow and black uniform of a Starfleet Security Officer.

"Where's Savok?" he asked out loud.

"He's on the planet below. We only have a matter of minutes before the Romulans get more ships here. I'm targeting the nearest ship."

Captain Delany got to his feet and tapped his communicator, "Savok, this is the Captain. Status report."

"Captain," spoke Katherine, "We cannot beam up straight away, Lieutenant Commander Galloway is currently treating Lieutenant Hawkins."

"The timeline has been corrected" spoke the static voice.

Panic ensued the Captain as he asked, "Where's my First Officer?"

"I'm here Sir, but Lieutenant Hawkins needs stabilizing. We need to get him back to the ship," continued Katherine.

"The time line has been corrected, save him," continued the voice.

"No, Commander Savok is my First Officer. Why is an Engineer treating my Tactical Chief?"

"Captain, this is Paul. Lieutenant Hawkins, I believe is in temporal shock. Katherine reached out to get him and he suddenly screamed out. We need to get him to Sickbay now."

"What does Ensign Jones think?"

Paul looked at Ensign Jones, who shook his head as if to say, why am I being asked?

Paul rather than trying to debate this just humored the Captain, "Our Engineer concurs."

"Sir, we need an immediate beam up before Scott gets worse," spoke Savok as he helped guard the door.

"Transporter room, lock onto them and energize," ordered Mike, still trying to get his head round what was happening.

Nothing made sense.

His captor was now helping to defend the ship against Romulans, who had appeared out of nowhere. One of his Engineers was now looking after his Tactical Chief, his First Officer was not his First Officer apparently, this just didn't make sense, but he couldn't worry about that now, he had the Romulans to take care of.

"Get our tactical situation on screen," ordered Mike, now trying to get hold of the situation.

On the screen he could see two Romulan Warbirds surrounding his vessel.

"Options?" he asked and was surprised to hear Kel provide them for him.

"Transporter room confirms we have everyone on board. Recommend we fire a burst of torpedoes in front of the lead Romulan vessel. Detonate them by remote control and it will provide a chance to get the Revelation out of Romulan space if we jump straight to warp."

"Do it," ordered Mike.

Kel's fingers deftly worked the console and launched the torpedoes; Fain monitored the Torpedo trajectory and the moment they detonated, he engaged the Warp Drive.

"Sensors show that we are not being pursued," advised Savok from the Operations Console. Mike stared at him for a few moments, then looked to his right to see who he guessed to be Katherine Galloway.

He saw that she had three gold pips on her collar, indicating that she was a full Commander.

"Saved her you did, the time line has been corrected," continued the voice.

"You have the Bridge Commander," he notified her as he stepped into his Ready room.

He heard the voice once again telling him that the time line had been corrected so why did nothing make sense? He sat down at his desk and placed his head in his hands. What on earth had happened? What had happened to his ship and crew? The person who he had risked his ship for was now sat down next to him, oblivious to having once been imprisoned by the Romulans. All the crew seemed wrong but somehow right. He touched the Communication button on his desk; at least he knew where that was, "Computer, current crew of the USS Merrimac."

The computer responded but not with the answer that he was expecting. "The Crew of the USS Merrimac separated three years ago, when the USS Merrimac was destroyed whilst saving a Bajoran Transport vessel that was under the command of Kel Aniyan."

Mike pressed the computer for more information, "Then what ship am I on? Who are my senior officers?"

"You are the Commanding Officer of the Prototype USS Revelation, Fleet Registry November X-ray seven four zero six one. Crew compliment of one thousand and sixty three Officers. First Officer Commander Katherine Malloy, Operations Chief and Second Officer Commander Savok, Chief Engineering Officer Lieutenant Commander Jackson Bartel, Chief Medical Officer Lieutenant Commander Paul Galloway, Chief Security Officer Lieutenant Kel Aniyan, Chief-"

"Ok Computer I've heard enough," interrupted Mike. He brought up his service record of the USS Revelation and noticed that he had only been in command for little under a year.

"The time line has been corrected, the timeline made redundant, after effects you will feel, saved him you did, save us you have and will, your final destiny still awaits," spoke the voice.

'_Save him?_' thought Mike but who had he saved? '_Lieutenant Hawkins was injured. What if it was never Galloway but Hawkins he had been trying to save?_'

"Computer, service record of Lieutenant Scott Hawkins."

The computer answered and confirmed what he feared, "Lieutenant Hawkins, graduated Starfleet Academy ninth in his class. First and only posting USS Genesis, for five years. Last known position, Deputy Chief Engineer, USS Genesis. Current status: missing, presumed dead due to the loss of the USS Genesis three years ago."

Mike covered his face as he slowly started to piece together his ship, his crew and what had just happened. '_He'd risked his ship and crew for a lowly Lieutenant._'

Mike checked the computer for classified log entries and found one; he accessed it and read what he had written and what he had written should have been impossible.

"Captains Personal Log,

Stardate 45131.8, I am making this log entry secure. I have recently been hearing a voice in my head; I think I am the only one who is hearing it. I have seen images; a ship that I don't recognize yet is familiar, a planet that I don't recognize, a male who I think I once considered as an Engineering Officer for my ship. These images are just some of the things that I cannot figure out their meaning. The voices have mentioned something about this timeline being wrong. Should I take it that I am not supposed to be here, that I am not supposed to be Captain of the USS Revelation or even supposed to be a Captain? The phrases, the words I cannot remember now; maybe I imagined it. Maybe I am going mad and should have Dr Paul Galloway check me out. God knows? I've currently set the Revelation on a course to rendezvous with the USS Darkheart; her crew has one member who used to be on the USS Genesis. She was one of its Science Officer's. I am hoping that she can help shed some light on this? What is the significance of this officer to her? How does he fit into this equation? What is it about this dead man that has compelled me to abandon my current mission on what is possibly a wild goose chase? Commander Malloy has so far indulged me in this, however my current actions are making her question my judgment in this matter. She knows what we are doing can risk the fragile treaty we hold with the Romulans. I have been in communication contact with Captain Beverly Gordon of the USS Darkheart. I've not been able to tell her too much; how would it sound what I'd tell her about this voice that I have been hearing? All I've asked, which she has granted me is to meet this Security Officer. If maybe she can confirm that the person who I have seen in my mind is this missing Deputy Chief Engineer, then I might have a lead as to what to do, where to go. She might even know what the planet is that I have seen. I have too many questions and not enough answers for this puzzle. All I know is that if I am wrong on any of this, then Starfleet could potentially strip me off my command, due to the violation of the treaty with the Romulans."

Captain Delany stopped the log entry. He had heard enough to convince him of what they had done. "Computer, current status of Captain Beverly Gordon's ship."

"The USS Darkheart is currently mapping the Alarnmous Cluster; the previous assignment of the USS Revelation."

Well, at least he knew that she and her crew, her ship were still alive. "Computer, have we had any recent crew transfers?"

"Negative. Only new person onboard is Lieutenant Hawkins."

Mike sat back in his chair, his eyes now feeling heavy with the weight of what he had done.

The door chimed.

"Enter," he addressed the door and Commander Malloy entered along with Paul Galloway.

"To what do I owe this visit? A report on the Away mission?"

Commander Katherine Malloy sat down along with Lieutenant Commander Galloway. Katherine was the first to speak, "Sir, I have just got the damage report from Engineering along with the casualty report."

"Casualties?" asked Mike.

"Yes Sir. We lost twenty personnel in the encounter with the Romulans, including Chief Engineer Bartel. Lieutenant David Piper is currently running Engineering. A plasma manifold that the Chief was trying to save erupted in his face. Dr Hadruis Pel tried to save him, but was unsuccessful."

"I might have been able to if I hadn't been on the planet," echoed Paul, "but that being said, Lieutenant Hawkins is still in the Medical Bay. I've had to sedate him. His physical state shouldn't be a problem. Counselor Rochelle Smith however has concerns for his mental state. With the last three years of imprisonment that he has gone through, will he even be able to resume a career in the fleet. She doesn't know how he will be once he comes round, how he will adjust. She has said that she will work with him but she doesn't know if the damage that he received at the hands of the Romulans has been too extensive. She has never dealt with anything like this, no one has."

"Thank you for your report. Dismissed."

Paul got up and left the Ready room, back down to the Medical to check in with his patient.

Katherine stayed behind, "Sir, can I speak off the record."

Mike sat back in his chair, intent on what his First Officer had to say, "By all means."

"Sir, I never questioned you when we took on this mission. I remember you telling me that I had to take a leap of faith. I did. Do you know what the conclusion is to my leap of faith?"

"No, Commander but I'm sure you will tell me."

"Aye Sir, I will. The pay off was not worth the price we paid. We lost one of the best Engineers in the fleet and for what? A lowly Lieutenant, who might or might not be any good to us. No Sir, the price we paid for this was too high. Sometimes the leaps just aren't worth it."

"What Commander, if it had been you that we had gone to rescue instead?"

"I'd have hoped you'd have left me. No _One_ officer is worth the risk or the price we paid."

"Commander," spoke Mike as he got up and moved round towards her, "I'd have risked everything to rescue you. Remember, we are all at risk from the moment that we are born. We are at risk when we put on this uniform; we are at risk with every decision that we make, if we weren't then we wouldn't be where we are today. No, our destiny would never be in our hands, it would not be for us to choose."

"I hope you are right Sir, about all of this," spoke Katherine as she made her way back to the Bridge, "I hope you are right about him," she finished as she left.

The door closed behind her and Mike sat down behind his desk.

"It's our Final Destiny," he replied, echoing the voice that spoke the exact same words to him that he'd just said to her after she'd gone, "It's our Final Destiny."


	3. S1 E3 - Junk

**STAR TREK - REVELATION**

**Episode 003 – Junk**

_Pen Name: Stringyfellow_

The USS Revelation was a prototype ship, brought into service due to the threat of the Borg. Based on the Galaxy Class design it had a few modifications, which the Galaxy class didn't.

It had three warp engines Nacelles; two located on the Secondary Hull whilst the third was located on the Saucer poweered by two warp cores, one in each section. The Saucer's warp core, when both were together would power the weapons systems of the ship, to make it more formidable in a fight. When separated, it would allow the saucer to warp out of any situation.

The Revelation also had blast shields that could lower over its deflector dish to allow it to survive longer in a battle; should the deflector get damaged or even destroyed the ship would become a useless floating lump of metal. Its Saucer wasn't oval in design like the Enterprise operated it was more angular and had a more arrowhead shape design.

Currently the Revelation was cruising through the Beta Quadrant; on route to Alpha Sygnus Three to drop off some much needed medical supplies, its three warp nacelles glowing as they pulsed with power. The USS Darkheart had completed the mapping mission that the Revelation was supposed to have done however the USS Darkheart had now been assigned back to patrolling the Romulan Neutral Zone.

The Revelation never managed to rendezvous with the Darkheart.

Captain Delany sat back in his chair in his Ready Room, contemplating his crew; his memories from the rescue still fresh in his head, the words of his First Officer still echoing in his mind, "I'd have hoped you'd have left me. No _One_ officer is worth the risk or the price we paid."

_Was she right in that assessment? _He had lost his Chief Engineer in the attack by the Romulans.

Before he could continue his thought, the door chimed and he knew who it would be.

"Enter," he announced to the two visitors that were on the other side. Sure enough Commander Katherine Malloy entered followed by Lieutenant Rochelle Smith, the ships chief Counsellor.

"Please take a seat," spoke Mike as he pointed to the chairs opposite his desk.

"We have the latest evaluation report of the crew," informed Rochelle as she handed a PADD to the Captain.

Mike glanced at it but he knew that it would be better to discuss its contents with his officers, both of them. "How is the crew after our last mission?" he asked Rochelle.

"They are all adjusting. We are going to get some losses to the crew though. Chief Bartel's family have requested reassignment, they feel that they cannot serve on the ship that he died on."

"I understand. Grant them a reassignment. How is Engineering coping with the loss?" he asked his First Officer; this question wasn't about psychological coping but actually coping working under the current deputy chief Engineer.

"The crew is coping, but not working to full efficiency. Lieutenant Piper is good with the crew, he has the skills for getting them to do their jobs but he lacks the experience in this position."

"Solution?" asked Mike, looking again to his First Officer; he could read her well and figured she was going to suggest what he had hoped for, but he did originally owe Lieutenant Piper a chance to prove he could take charge of Engineering.

"We need to try Lieutenant Hawkins in that position. I reviewed his personnel file from his time on the USS Genesis. I wanted to see how someone could get to the position of Deputy Chief Engineer as quickly as he had. He was one of the most creative engineers that they had on board. He was able to think outside the box to come up with quick, unorthodox solutions that regular approaches couldn't solve. He could fit the bill as Chief Engineer, but there's just one problem."

"What problem?"

This time Rochelle spoke up. "He's a recluse. He will go to Engineering and undertake whatever is asked of him, but he doesn't talk to anyone, he doesn't interact with anyone. He spends his off duty time alone in his quarters or on rare occasions on the Holodeck. He doesn't know how to socialize; he lacks skills for interacting with people."

"Aren't the counselling sessions working for him?"

"Not really, even when he does decide to turn up. Whenever I try to find him, the computer states that he is in his quarters, even when he isn't."

"What do you mean, even when he isn't?" asked Mike, perplexed at this.

"Kel Aniyan came with me the last time he failed to turn up; she used her security clearance to open the door to his quarters and his communicator badge was on the table. We checked with the computer and it told us he was in the Room. This has happened three times now. The first time, he reprogrammed a Tricorder to emit a strong copy of his bio signature to make it look like he was in his quarters. The second time, he reprogrammed the computer to always tell us that he was in his quarters; Kel is still trying to work out how he managed to access the central computer core and reprogram it, without breaking any security codes and alerting her. The third time, he did it by cycling the replicator onto a continual energy loop of producing and removing bio matter within microseconds of each other to make it look like he was in his quarters. He's ingenious but it needs to be channelled."

"So if he could properly interact with the crew he could be a good Chief Engineer?" confirmed Mike, upon listening to what his officers had to say.

"Yes Sir that is what I believe. We have both discussed this at length," said Katherine looking at Rochelle who nodded her assent to this, "With help on his interaction skills he could do the job."

"Good. Let's speak to him and see if he feels up to the challenge." Mike touched the communicator button on his desk and addressed the computer, "Computer, current location of Lieutenant Hawkins please?"

"Lieutenant Hawkins is in his quarters," it replied. Mike looked to Rochelle and then Katherine and spoke, "Take Kel with you. Let's see what he has done this time."

Down in the Revelation's relaxation lounge, Doctor Hadrius Pel was chatting with Kel Aniyan, "Never served on anything as good as this ship," said Hadrius, casually to Kel as they sat by one of the windows overlooking the star field.

"I encountered one a few years back, a science vessel, the Merrimac," commented Kel. Hadrius took a sip of his Saurian Brandy, "So I heard. You were _really _instrumental in the loss of the Captains' previous command and he gave you a field commission as punishment? Some punishment."

"It wasn't so much of a punishment, than a way to reprise myself. I used to be in Starfleet, it was better to accept the commission than go to a penal colony. Spending part or even all of your life on a penal colony is something that I wouldn't want, something I wouldn't wish for anyone to experience."

"Yea, but Lieutenant Hawkins has. Who knows how it has affected him?"

"The Captain must have faith in him if he placed him straight to work in Engineering," said Kel, drinking her Bajoran Kijarlin Root tea, something that she found soothing for its ripe, fruity taste, "Though I am amazed at the stuff he has pulled. I still cannot get my head round how he reprogrammed the computer without it letting security know"

They both continued drinking quietly for a few more moments, "You'll figure it out eventually," reassured Hadrius, as an evil grin started to spread across his face as he continued "Technically speaking, you too are a prisoner,"

"I'm not a prisoner." Aniyan replied, a bit of indignation in her voice.

Hadrius rose his glass and took another sip of his brandy, "Ah, but you are. You see, you avoided a penal colony; true you are not a prisoner in that sense but you are a prisoner now to Starfleet, as a security officer onboard one of its finest ships. You can't leave. I guess as a prisoner on a penal colony, you do at least have your eventual release to look forward to. What do you have to look forward to here? A long service onboard this ship, a long service in the fleet or maybe even death in service. No, you're a prisoner. Just in a different sense."

Kel looked Hadrius straight in the eye; she could see a glint of humour in them, along with a sense of wisdom hiding behind them. That gave her the means to come up with an even greater response, "Yes, I concede that I am a prisoner of sorts, however my sentence will never be extended, unlike yours Pel."

"Unlike mine?" asked Hadrius.

"Yes, we all know that Trills are symbiotic; you have the Symbiont and the Host. The Host might die in a fatal accident but the trill could live on in a new host; it could have many lifetimes worth of experiences; it knows no release thereby it is a prisoner of its existence."

"Freely choosing to have this existence. Without the hosts, we would be stuck on our home world, unable to explore, unable to learn, unable to grow. The risk of a host being killed and the symbiont with it is high, but worthwhile nether the less. Though we are prisoners of our hosts, we are free."

"As am I, I get to travel the galaxy with this ship instead of being stuck on a penal colony. I guess we are both alike in this, prisoners of our own circumstances, of our own choices yet we are both free," concluded Kel raising her glass towards Hadrius'.

As they were about to take another drink, her communicator beeped, "Lieutenant Aniyan, report to Lieutenant Hawkins quarters please," came Katherine's disembodied voice.

Kel looked to Hadrius as if to say, '_here we go again._'

Once Kel Aniyan had departed from the relaxation lounge on deck ten, Lieutenant Hadrius Pel left the Room as well and went for a stroll through the decks of the Revelation as there was no one else there that he knew. His walk took him towards one of the Holodecks that was placed around the ship for recreational use.

The Holodeck currently wasn't in use so Hadrius looked through the computers Holodeck memory to see if he could find something in there to interest him.

"Fencing scenario one," he murmured, "That sounds mildly interesting."

He activated the programme.

"Programme complete, enter when ready," announced the computer.

Hadrius had no idea what to expect, but he squared his shoulders and stepped inside.

Doctor Pel found himself in the luxurious gardens of a large, stately manor eighteenth century house. He looked around at the gardens; there were roses and hedgerows around, stone or possible marble sculptured animals scattered around along with decorative water fountains spewing water.

Ahead of him, he could see the white stoned manor house; marble pillars adorned the double door entrance to the house. On the ground in front of him was what looked like a discarded weapon, long, metallic with a very thin blade. As he bent down to take a close look at the item a voice cried out from the manor house, the voice of a woman, presumably the young woman who was rushing out of the door, her yellow dress flowing behind her, her long brunette locks flying around her neck as she ran direct for him.

She ran straight into his arms.

As she clung to him a man walked out of the house dressed in what appeared to be a black suit, with a white shirt sporting a cravat, his own long black hair tied back in a small pony tail. He appeared to be brandishing the same type of metallic object that he had examined only a matter of moments before.

When he saw Hadrius, he bowed in mock courtesy and raised his foil and advanced. "You dare lay a hand on my wife?" roared the man.

Hadrius instantly recoiled away from the woman.

"Enguarde," snapped the man as he lunged his foil towards Hadrius, who rolled onto the ground and picked up the other foil and managed to block the incoming swing of the blade. Hadrius surprised himself as he countered his foes next volley of swings and managed to turn the attack around and even trim the left half of the moustache from the lord of the manor's face.

The man's face turned crimson, "I was going to let you off with a chiding but now you will pay for this," he shouted as he fingered his moustache or what was left of it.

Hadrius began to defend himself admirably against his foe, but his inexperience was all too clear and it was becoming harder to defend himself.

It wasn't until Hadrius caught sight of the young woman and noticed the excited gleam in her eye along smile on her face that he suddenly realised that this had been a set up. That this was the reason that she had grabbed hold of him, to give her husband an excuse to kill him. The adrenalin poured into his system and with a yell of rage he disarmed the man with a vicious twist of his blade.

Then he looked at the young woman whose smile had now disappeared, "For you my lady," Hadrius sneered as he swung his blade in wide arc and decapitated the man with one stroke. The scene vanished due to Hadrius completing the program and the familiar black and yellow grid took its place.

Hadrius heard someone behind him clapping. He slowly turned round to see Lieutenant Rochelle Smith, the ships Counsellor watching his final act against the holographic opponent. Rochelle had left Katherine once she had met up with Kel Aniyan to locate Lieutenant Hawkins. It wasn't until she passed Holodeck Three when she noticed that it was operating her fencing program so out of curiosity, she had entered to see who had activated it.

"Not bad," she said, "But how would you fair against a real person?"

"I wouldn't know," answered Hadrius, wondering where this might be leading.

"If you'll come with me to Deck Twenty, we'll get you some proper gear, a real foil and I'll teach you how to fight properly with it," smiled Rochelle.

"Sounds intriguing," replied the Doctor as he followed the Counsellor out of the Holodeck.

On the Bridge of the USS Revelation, Captain Delany relieved Commander Savok who had been looking after the ship whilst he was having his meeting with Commander Evans and Lieutenant Smith.

Commander Savok returned to his Operations station.

Mike sat down in his chair and watched the Viewscreen. The star field on the screen showed just that, stars in their countless billions, flying past the ship as she graced the galaxy with her presence. As he sat watching the star field, Mike contemplated the officer's that he had picked for his new command.

Commander Savok was indeed a fine officer, one of the best that the fleet had to offer, hence his position as Second Officer and Operations Manager. His career was exceptional for a Vulcan, but he never seemed capable of making the leap to towards Captaincy, he never seemed to have the motivational skills to progress his career; he always seemed to be in the background.

Mike hoped that he would learn enough during his time on this ship that he could one day take the step up to command of his own ship. He also had the same hopes for his First Officer.

Currently Lieutenant Vexx was manning the Security station whilst his Chief Security Officer was off duty, though by now she should be at Lieutenant Hawkins' quarters.

Vexx, like Savok was a Vulcan, however she believed that her physical abilities would best serve Starfleet more than if she went into the sciences. Vulcans were well known for their superior strength as well as their highly logical minds. Captain Delany was so far happy with her performances and knew that one day, she would make an exceptional Chief Security Officer.

Ensign Fain was manning the Helm, one of the first Ferengi to enlist in Starfleet. He was a good pilot, but Mike was unsure as to why a Ferengi would enlist as most of their race believed in profit. Where was the profit in piloting a Starship? Possibly maybe the prestige of piloting a new ship might help make his name quickly in the Ferengi Alliance, to become a Damon.

Mike felt that he was a good judge of character, hence why he appointed Fain to the position as Chief Pilot of the Revelation. He had to be a good judge of character about Fain as well as his newly rescued officer, hence why he had allowed Lieutenant Hawkins to stay onboard. Starfleet felt that after his ordeal, he wouldn't be fit to serve again.

The possibility of them running into Romulans could be high; there would be no way to determine how he would handle it. Mike saw it differently, Scott had survived long enough to be rescued, even when there seemed to be no chance at all, he had held out for it.

That gave him a strong will of character that made him special so Mike had no hesitation in keeping him onboard, same as he had no hesitation in bringing in his Counsellor from his old command on the USS Merrimac, Lieutenant Rochelle Smith.

He needed people who he could trust to operate in these positions without being under his eye all the time, that left him time to run the ship and the missions, making himself one of the best Captains in the fleet.

His final piece of the puzzle was his Chief Medical Officer. Paul Galloway never passed at the top of his field, he was a good officer and he held a strong desire to learn. It was that desire to learn that caught Mike's eye, he knew that this officer would keep learning whilst he was out in the field encountering new races. This was a sign of a good medical officer, especially as Paul had requested the presence of his old friend Hadrius Pel to accompany him, he said something about the fact that he owes his friend a debt and that if he is with him, he can repay this.

After watching the stars for what seemed like an eternity, he got up and approached Savok at his Operations station. Commander Savok appeared to be engrossed in his work; he didn't notice the approach of his Commanding Officer, either that or uncharacteristically he had chosen to ignore him.

"Something of interest?" asked Mike, curious over what had intrigued his Second Officer.

"I am detecting what I believe to be a Warp trail, one that doesn't appear to dissipate."

"You mean this propulsion system could be limitless?" asked Mike.

"Isn't that what I said?" asked Savok, who in his own Vulcan way thought he had explained everything pretty clearly.

"Apparently you did. Can you determine direction of travel, what is producing this and where its or their destination is?" enquired Mike, his curiosity starting to get the better of him.

This find appeared to be the start of an incredible new adventure; a new discovery, which could make his name go down in history. From what he could remember, nothing like this warp trail had ever been discovered before.

"I would need more time to analyse the trail."

"Very well," spoke Mike, "Commander, please relay the coordinates to Ensign Fain at the Helm. Ensign," he continued, "Follow the course of the trail that Commander Savok is sending to your console."

"Aye sir," responded Fain, "Changing course, heading two one six, mark one four nine."

"Good. Savok, remember that we have got medical supplies to deliver to Alpha Sygnus Three. I cannot give you too much time. You'll have four hours to find the source of this trail. So far it looks like we could have a nice mystery on our hands."

"Sir," asked Lieutenant Vexx, "How have you come to the conclusion that a mystery is nice?"

"I just mean it will be nice to break up this monotonous journey."

"Humans seem to have a unique view to looking at the mysteries of the universe."

"That's why we are out here, for the unknown. It is our desire to continue our expansion of our knowledge, of the wonders of the universe that drives us on. Without that desire, what else would we strive for? We would still be fighting amongst ourselves."

"That is true, had it not been for our meeting with your Zefram Cochrane."

"Indeed. That is what I love about Vulcans. Your ability to take credit for all the situations that you find yourself involved in. Who knows how our future would have changed had we never met your race on April Fifth, twenty sixty three."

Scott Hawkins was sat in his quarters, on his bed gazing out at the stars, taking in the conversation that he had had with Commander Malloy less than an hour ago.

She had told him that they needed him to act as Chief Engineering Officer. It had been less than a month since he had been rescued, he was adjusting slowly back to life within Star Fleet and now they were offering him position of the Engineering Chief. All he had done was just go to Engineering at the start of his shift and complete whatever task he had been instructed to do. No more, no less. He dropped his head into his hands to think.

A pair of arms draped lovingly around his shoulders. He felt the extra weight transfer itself onto the bed next to him.

She spoke to him, "What's troubling you?"

"They want me to become Chief Engineer," he replied to her.

"That's great, it was what you have been aiming for all this time."

Scott lifted his head and looked at her, her black hair coalescing down her face, her soft eyes unassumingly looking into his, her lips moist and tender.

"I don't know anymore. I don't know what I want. I remember things that I shouldn't, things from another life. The Doc thinks it's a side effect from the temporal shock that I apparently went into when Commander Malloy reached out to rescue me when I was a prisoner on Franquila. I, I," stumbled Scott as he tried to explain to her what was going through his mind, "I, I'm scared around these people. There are too many people here. I'm safe here in my quarters with you. I was safe on Franquila. I'm not safe here."

She looked at him intently, compassion and sorrow in her eyes; when she spoke she only told him the truth, "You will never be safe again, not here on the Revelation, not on Franquila, and you will never be safe in Starfleet or out of it. The only way you will be safe is if you take action to become safe, even as Chief Engineer, you can influence how safe you will be." Scott listened intently to the words as she spoke them and knew she was right, but then she had been right about most things. That was how they got together, she knew he was right for her even though he didn't know it at the time and that was why she had moved into his quarters. It had been the right thing to do. She looked at Scott who was still looking at her and she knew what to do, she placed her lips against his and held him in the tightest of embraces that she could; as for Scott, he just held her just as tightly as he could and responded to Michelle's kiss with as much passion as he could remember.

Within an hour of Commander Savok providing the co-ordinates of the Warp Trail to Ensign Fain, the Revelation had arrived to where the alien ship was. It was currently orbiting a planet, in an unknown cluster of stars that had yet to be mapped out by any Federation ship. The Revelation, once she had entered the system had started recording data on all the planetary bodies present, their orbits, the main sun in the system and anything else that they thought could be useful.

As for the alien vessel, its orbit wasn't stable around the planet as it now looked to be in a decaying orbit. Strange considering the Warp trail that had led them here hadn't dissipated yet it couldn't hold a steady orbit around the planet. Could it have been possible the sun in the system was somehow affecting how the orbits of the planets were within the system along with anything that happened to orbit them?

"If we lose the ship to the strength of the planet's gravity, we lose any chance of learning about this power source," spoke Katherine to Captain Delany, who was standing next to Savok's Operations station.

Savok looked up to the Captain, "She is indeed correct in this assumption, however if we were to beam over to the ship, I would suggest minimal contact for the smallest possible time allowed. I have calculated that the ship's orbit will only last for two point one hours currently. That will not give us long to conduct an investigation into this ship and its origin."

"Then naturally we will take more people. We could discover ten times more information on it with ten people than if we took only three or four," reasoned Katherine.

"However with the increase of personnel, increases the danger. It would take longer to beam ten people off than it would to beam off three or four people," noted Savok logically, which stood to reason given the current circumstances.

"Commander, I have to side with Savok on this one. Take a small contingent of personnel, only essential though. If someone can do more than one job, the better it is."

"Aye sir, I shall notify the necessary people to meet in Transporter Room One in ten minutes. Commander Savok, Lieutenant Aniyan, you two are with me," announced Katherine as she made her way to leave the bridge.

"Good luck Commander, and be careful," warned Mike, who had learned that when something looks like it can be done easily, it rarely was. When the trio had arrived in Transporter Room One, Lieutenant Hawkins was waiting for them. Katherine was surprised, as she hadn't expected that he would be ready to beam over to a new environment so soon after his rescue, but Scott explained that if he were going to be the new Chief, he would have to get used to his surroundings changing. So here he was, kitted out with an Engineering tool kit, Tricorder and surprisingly a Phaser.

"The Phaser Lieutenant?" she asked of him,

"You never know," he replied to which Kel commented, "Well, at least he covers all the angles, same as myself."

She patted her Phaser for emphasis.

"Captain, we are ready for beam over."

"Understood. Beam whenever you are ready."

Katherine looked to Ensign Phillipa Brook, the Transporter Chief in charge of Transporter Room one, whose fingers deftly flew over the console and transferred the away team of four over to the alien ship.

On the Bridge, Lieutenant Susan Brook, Phillipa's twin sister was covering Commander Savok's console. "Confirmed Captain. The away team has been transferred over to the Alien Vessel."

"Good. Now we just wait," spoke Mike as he sat down in his chair.

Susan started to work the sensors on her console, "Sir the ship is powering itself up."

"What?" Mike asked as he quickly got out of his chair and looked at the view screen as the Alien ship suddenly exploded.

"What happened?"

"I don't know. I don't know, it's just gone." And sure enough, all that was left on the screen was a huge amount of debris.

Captain Delany sat despondently in his chair at the Conference Lounge table. With him were his ships Counsellor Rochelle Smith, Lieutenant Commander Galloway the Revelations Chief Medical Officer, Lieutenant David Piper the Deputy Chief Engineer, Lieutenant Vexx and Lieutenant Susan Brook.

"Captain," spoke Rochelle, "You were not to know what was going to happen with the alien vessel. You were not to blame for what happened."

"Wasn't I?" asked Mike, looking to his Counsellor. "I sent them over there; it was my responsibility to ensure that they were safe."

"Sir, you would have had no idea of what was going to happen," commented Lieutenant Susan Brook,

"But I should have. I should have realized that it was dangerous to send them over to it." Lieutenant Vexx looked to the Captain and spoke out, "With respect Sir, you did realize by sending over only a small contingent of personnel. You sent over only four people instead of ten. By those actions you saved six lives-"

"But I still lost four. Four senior members of my crew."

"Who still knew the risks, they were experienced in what they were doing. They were the best choice to go to the alien ship," spoke Lieutenant Commander Galloway. "Their loss is regrettable but we do still have a mission to complete. Alpha Sygnus Three still requires those medical supplies. I have been in touch with the outposts' Medical Officer. He's advised that the estimate he made for when their supplies were going to run is actually much sooner than he first anticipated."

Mike looked to Paul. Mike knew that when he sent his away team over to the alien vessel he didn't have much time for them to examine the ship before they were due to head back on route to the planet. Now with the loss of his First Officer, his Second Officer who also was his Operations Manager, his newly appointed Chief Engineer along with his Chief of Security, he was considerably undermanned in specific areas. He still also, as his Chief Medical Officer rightly pointed out, had a mission to complete. The loss of his colleagues and friends would have to be mourned for later. Right now he knew what he had to do.

"You're right of course Doctor. Lieutenant Brook set a course heading for Alpha Sygnus Three."

"Aye Sir," replied Susan as she took her leave back to the bridge to implement the Captains' orders.

Mike looked to his remaining officers, "I know that some of you were close to our lost friends, but we will have to deal with their loss once our mission is completed. Replacing them will be hard but I know that for the time being, both Lieutenant Piper and Lieutenant Vexx should be able to step into the positions of Chief Engineer and Chief Security Officer for the remainder of this mission. I trust that you both can do that?"

"Of course Sir," answered David,

"Affirmative," confirmed Vexx as they both responded to the Captains' enquiry.

"Good, we all know what to do then," finished Mike as he stood up and left the Conference Room back towards the Bridge.

"Well, I don't know what to do?" spoke Kel as both she, Scott, Savok and Katherine sat down trying to work out their options. Unknown to the crew of the Revelation, the alien ship hadn't exploded but dumped rubbish out to appear like it had exploded. As it had done that, it jumped direct to warp, producing a massive flash that looked like an explosion, hence why the Revelation hadn't sent out a search party to try to locate them.

Now it was down to them to try to find a way to be rescued.

"From what I have been able to determine, all major systems seem to be locked out. We cannot access communications, weapons nor affect the engines. All the power systems appear to be locked out," advised Commander Savok.

"In what way are they locked out?" asked Commander Malloy.

"I have been unable to access the consoles; they appear to be dead, to have no power."

"What about trying to access the computer directly?" asked Kel.

"No, there appear to be no computer access terminals anywhere or even anything that we would recognize as access points."

"Navigation? You haven't mentioned navigation. Can that be accessed?" asked Katherine seeing a possible means of escape.

"In the sense of piloting the ship, then no. In changing course again no. All we can do is see where we are heading."

"And where is that exactly?" asked Kel, not happy at being helpless.

"We are on a heading of zero two six mark one five nine. Our speed is warp six," informed Savok meticulously.

"So we can see where we are going, but we cannot do anything about it," confirmed Kel.

Scott was only partially listening to them. To keep himself calm during what had happened, he'd started to focus on his Tricorder, messing with settings on it, doing anything to it to keep his mind focused away from the situation, to stop his panicking at being trapped so soon after his rescue.

Katherine had noticed that he wasn't contributing to the meeting, but she never said anything. That was until the Tricorder emitted a loud, continuous beep, forcing all four of them to cover their ears.

"SHUT IT DOWN LIEUTENANT" shouted Katherine over the deafening racket.

"I'M ALREADY TRYING," he answered. Within a minute, the racket had deceased. "WHAT EXACTLY CAUSED THAT?" asked Katherine, looking at Scott, who she was now annoyed with, due to his interruption of their meeting.

Scott shook his head trying to clear the ringing from it. "I think I inverted the bio sensor in it. It failed to recognize us as life forms. It knew we were here but didn't know what we were. I messed up what the Tricorder was programmed to detect. I'm, I'm sorry Commander, it will not happen again."

Katherine looked at him, her expression of anger changing to one of intrigue, "Could you make the computer of this ship believe that the information it is receiving is incorrect?"

"Possibly, but to what purpose?"

"If this ship is on an automatic course, then let's see if we can make it think we are off course so it will change its direction."

"To send it somewhere else," spoke Kel, suddenly realizing what Katherine was planning.

"But where do we send it?" asked Scott.

He was confident that he could make the computer think its sensor readings from its navigational system were incorrect by accessing the computer through the replicator, like he had on the Revelation. But for him to do that, he needed to know what readings to provide it with, which would direct the ship to a new location. Where to send the alien vessel? He needed Katherine and Savok to provide that information with their knowledge on what action the Captain would take next.

Three days had passed since the destruction of the alien vessel and the Revelation had arrived at Alpha Sygnus Three uneventfully. Now Lieutenant Commander Paul Galloway was down on the surface of the planet with Lieutenant Hadrius Pel where they were overseeing the final shipment of the much-needed medical supplies to the outpost.

"We need those containers of hydro-benazyne over in the south wing," instructed Paul to the medical orderly who was transporting it on an antigrav trolley.

"Thank you for this. Without the speed of the Revelation, I don't think the supplies would have arrived in time. I did expect yourselves to have arrived sooner, but no matter at least you arrived," commented Medical Administrator Dewalhi Singh.

"We were lucky," finished Paul.

"Lucky? I don't understand."

"We had encountered an alien vessel which we started to investigate-"

"Investigate? But we needed these medical supplies," interrupted Dewalhi.

"And you got them still, even though you miscalculated when your supplies would run out. We lost four good officers when we were investigating the ship. We knew we could spare some time to check it out as we were within the time scale that you had originally provided to us. This mysterious ship was running a power source that seemed limitless. With that in mind, we decided to investigate it."

"Did you manage to determine the type of power source that this ship was using?" he asked, feigning interest now that he had his supplies.

"No, the ship self destructed before we could find anything out about it. We lost too many good officers."

"Still, never mind. At least the medical shipment made it safely."

"That's all you give a damn about isn't it?" Paul was incredulous about Dewalhi's attitude. "They were not part of our team, therefore not our concern. They were your Captain's concern."

"So I see. Well, since you have the supplies, we will be on our way."

Paul tapped his communicator, "Revelation, this is Lieutenant Commander Galloway; lock onto my teams signals and return them to the ship. Then transport myself," he instructed. "Don't mistake my lack of concern for the loss of your comrades as anything malicious, it is just that on this planet, on this outpost there would have been little that we could have done to change the situation. You do have our condolences."

Within a matter of minutes Paul's team had returned to the ship, leaving just Paul down at the outpost with Dewalhi.

"Red Alert! An unknown vessel is now entering the sector. It isn't answering our hails," came a voice through the outpost's announcement system.

Paul tapped his communicator, "Captain, we have just heard of an alien vessel that has entered the system. Is the Revelation tracking it on sensors?"

"We are Doctor. We will need to beam you up immediately."

"Understood. Standing by."

"But, you can't leave us like this. We will need your assistance we only have shields and phased cannons. If this ship should attack…" protested Dewalhi.

"Concern for your own safety? Forgive my lack of concern for your position but my ship and crew takes precedence," spoke Paul, looking at the panic spreading over Dewalhi's face, until he decided that he'd seen enough.

"We need to break orbit so everyone who was planet based from our crew has to return to the ship whilst we investigate it." With that said, Paul tapped his communicator and transported back to the Revelation.

The USS Revelation was on Red Alert at the approach of the Alien Vessel into the Alpha Cygnus system. Its course was a little erratic which would be unusual for an aggressor, however Mike had been caught out once before by an alien vessel, which had cost him four members of his crew.

This time he wasn't going to be so he'd placed his ship on Red Alert and was preparing himself for anything out of the ordinary, however what he heard next he wasn't prepared for. "Captain," spoke Lieutenant Vexx from the Tactical console, "Sensors indicate that this alien vessel has the exact same configurations as the alien vessel we encountered three days ago that self destructed."

"Could it be possible that the alien vessel hadn't been destroyed?" he asked Vexx.

Though she was a Security Officer, her Vulcan mind was still logical enough to provide a possible answer to this puzzle. "Hypothetically yes. If that were the case then our comrades could still be onboard, however I am unable to establish contact with them. They do not answer hails."

"Can we get a scan for life form readings on the vessel?" he asked.

Susan who was at the Operations console started scanning, "I am detecting four life forms." Mike touched the communication button on the arm of his chair, "Transporter Room One, lock onto the four life forms and beam them aboard. Shield control will be at your discretion."

"Sir, regulations prohibit the beaming of unknown people onto our ship without the necessary security precautions having been taken."

Mike looked at Vexx, "In all honesty?"

"Yes sir."

"Very well, we shall both attend. Good enough Lieutenant?"

"Aye sir."

Both of the officers left the Bridge and shortly arrived in Transporter Room One. Lieutenant Vexx drew her Phaser and aimed at the Transporter pad. Captain Delany gave the order to energize and onto the platform appeared Commanders' Malloy and Savok along with Lieutenant Hawkins and Lieutenant Kel Aniyan.

Commander Savok was the first to speak and to also point out a flaw in Lieutenant Vexx's logic, "Lieutenant, please redirect your phaser away from the Transporter. Should you accidentally fire and hit the phase coils, you will destroy Transporter Room One along with six percent of the Saucer."

Captain Delany looked to his fellow crewmembers, glad to have them back. "Number One, I think you will have a bit of fun explaining this."

"Aye Sir," she replied stepping of the platform, "Well, Lieutenant Hawkins managed to fool the Garbage Vessels computer-"

"Garbage Vessel?" interrupted Mike, shocked at what his Officers had beamed onto, "Are you sure?"

"Yes Captain," replied Commander Savok, "We had time to investigate the ship and discovered that it is programmed to locate radioactive debris within various solar systems and converts that radioactivity into a purer form of energy which it uses to enhance its propulsion system, hence why it appeared to be a never ending source of energy. The planet it was orbiting is its home base where it safely delivers the remains of the safely converted debris into the planets atmosphere. Smaller vessels collect the waste and the planets inhabitants use the material to create more of these vessels. The planet is like a universal dump, to use a crude analogy."

Captain Delany tried to stifle a smirk.

"Anyway," continued Katherine, "We figured out what its purpose was and that it was on a pre-programmed course. We then just used Scott's creativeness in hacking into the navigational sensors to send it false signals to make it believe it was off course, so it would self correct itself. The false information we fed it made it make its way here."

"How did you know to come here?" he asked.

"We gambled that you would continue the mission to deliver the supplies. The gamble paid off."

"Thankfully it did. Well, I'm glad to have you all back, and I think next time Number One, we should both be more careful about which away missions are rubbish and which ones aren't."


	4. S1 E4 - Games Of Chess

**STAR TREK - REVELATION**

**Episode 004 – Games Of Chess**

The USS Darkheart was currently orbiting the planet of Kiylas, which was the fifth planet in the Alascarnia system. The Alascarnia system was a binary star system that contained six planets, with twin suns. Kiylas was the fifth planet in the system but the only planet that was harboring life. The forth planet was in a parallel and synchronous orbit with it, a dead planet that acted as a shield to protect Kiylas from the rays of the suns. The USS Darkheart had been brought here by an interplanetary distress signal, which it had answered, as there had been no other Federation ships close to the system.

Captain Beverly Gordon was now regretting that decision.

For the interplanetary distress call had turned out to be a trap, to lure unsuspecting ships, their Captains and their crews to the planet where they would partake in a selection of challenges, with their freedom at stake. If they won, they would be allowed to leave however if they lost they would be forced to stay on the planet. Captain Gordon had been clever enough not to send down a large contingent on the first away team, but then it had all gone wrong. The first away team had been captured. The second away team to attempt to rescue the first had then also been captured.

Every possible move that she attempted, to make the situation better for herself, to allow her to get out of this had been anticipated and countered, like someone was playing a game of chess and foreseeing her moves before she even made them; and her crew were merely pawns for their opponent's amusement.

Now she too had sent out a distress signal, in the hopes that someone could help rescue her crew without jeopardizing their own.

"Captain," spoke Lieutenant Lowe to her Commanding Officer, "If another Federation ship helps us, aren't we just putting them at risk?"

"I'm running out of options. I don't know what is happening on the planet, nor do I know what their next move is? All I can do is hope that we can get help from someone who has defied the odds and survived, they might stand a chance."

"You're hoping that Captain Delany detects the distress signal and comes to your aid."

"At this point in time, I hope for him as he seems to have a lot of luck on his side when it comes to impossible situations. If he cannot get us out of this, then I'm not sure who could."

"But by sending out the signal," continued Michelle, "you are bringing more people into this game. As one of your few remaining Security Officers onboard, I have to recommend that we don't send out the distress call. Instead we transmit a quarantine alert advising all ships to stay away from here. That way, we will at least be the last ship to fall prey to these peoples deception. Better for us to lose than for others as well."

"You're right, of course. Very well, change the broadcast signal to a wide band emergency beacon. Advise a system wide avoidance of this sector due to a dangerous, incurable medical outbreak. Advise that we have been contaminated and no-one is to come to our aid."

"Aye Captain, transmitting now."

Down on the planets surface, hidden away from general view of its populace on the Eastern continent's capital was the White Clan of Regence. They were part of the main ruling body of the planet Kiylas, who shared the ruling of the planet with the Western continent, who were ruled by the Black Clan of Selenus. Neither clan wanted to have joint rulings with the other but neither could ever get an advantage over the other long enough to eventually emerge triumphant.

Each clan was governed by strict rules, which neither was allowed to break. These rules had been passed down by generations previous to the current ruling families; the rules dictated the set up of each clan and were forbidden to be broken. Each clan had a ruling King whose Queen would lead the troops into battle. Should the Queen be captured or killed, he would be allowed to declare someone new to be Queen, who would then continue to lead the troops. They each had their own magic religious sects headed by two bishops, one who would lead with the light arts and one with the dark arts of witchcraft. The armies had to be lead by twin brothers, who would be the Knights of the Clan. If either one was captured or killed, the law of the land dictated that the other should continue to battle until he too was captured or killed. Masons would maintain the Clans battlements of both of the Castles.

Now, the White Clans' King, Tramidus had spoken with his religious leaders; his light arts bearer suggested looking to the heavens for the answer, whilst his dark arts advisor suggested seeking to the ground. In this case, the light arts bearer's advise was taken on board, hence the distress call that had brought forth the alien vessel that was now in orbit, whose populace would now serve him.

They would become the new attacking pawns in his quest to gain complete control over the planet Kiylas, which would save the lives of his people. These aliens would bring with them the tools needed to turn the tide in this centuries long war. He already had some of them on the planet from the first landing that they had undertaken. They would be used as leverage to get more people and more technology from the aliens, to use against the Clan of Selenus. Then, they would win this war once and for all.

Captain Delany was in his Ready Room, in an unscheduled meeting with his First Officer, his Chief Counselor and his Chief Medical Officer.

"Are you sure about this?" asked Mike to Paul Galloway, the Revelation's Chief Medical Officer.

"Yes sir, I'm sure. I'd come back from a discussion with David Piper in Engineering when I went past Holodeck five and saw it running. Normally, that Holodeck isn't usually used. I had a look and saw that our Chief Engineer was running a program, something he called Franquila One."

"I've seen something called Genesis One. Both programs have been operated by Scott," confirmed Katherine.

Paul looked at her when she mentioned the program name. She continued then with her thought process as it all suddenly clicked into place, "Franquila was the name of the planet where we rescued him from. That means that Genesis One isn't the Genesis planet as I first thought, but maybe his original ship."

"Counselor?" asked Mike, not sure of what to make of this or how to handle it. Creating these programs was not illegal however maybe the use of them was something to be addressed. "Going by his record and from what I have observed, I would speculate that these are two places where he feels most safe, maybe where he feels he has control over his life. He did lose three years of his life, thanks to the Romulans."

Mike sat back in his chair, "Does he pose a risk to the safety of this crew? Does he want to get back there?" he enquired.

"I don't think so. These programs could be harmless, but we do need to find out what exactly they entail. With that knowledge, we might be able to help him," informed Rochelle, who knew that he was no longer attending the counseling sessions and thought that this might give her a further insight into his mental set up.

"I'll do it," interjected Paul.

"You'll do what?" asked Katherine.

"I'll look into it. Besides, if he is hiding out in the Holodeck, then it sounds like he needs a friend on this ship. Someone has to do it."

Mike, Rochelle and Katherine looked at him.

"Well," spoke Mike, after a moments thought, "I can't think of anyone better right now, just try to tread carefully on this."

"Aye Sir, I will," replied Paul, happy to have a break from the Medical bay as there hadn't been anything challenging of late to do in there.

"Captain to the Bridge," came Kel's disembodied voice over the communications channel. Mike stood up and left his Ready Room followed by the rest of his officers from the meeting, "Report Lieutenant."

"Captain, we are picking up a quarantine alert on all subspace frequencies from the USS Darkheart."

"Captain Gordon's ship?" questioned Mike even though he already knew that she wouldn't be wrong.

"Confirmed Sir, registry code is matching."

"Have they detailed what their contaminant is?" asked Paul.

Mike looked to him, realizing that he had just interrupted his questioning, but he also knew his Chief Medical Officer was right to ask.

"No sir, however the signal was changed from a general wide band distress signal to the quarantine signal. They just advise that it is incurable and for all ships to stay away from Alascarnia system."

Mike sat down in his chair. His next move would have to be carefully thought out, for if he takes the Revelation to the Alascarnia system then he could contaminate his entire crew, however the general distress signal changing to a quarantine signal due to an incurable disease didn't make sense.

Something was wrong on the USS Darkheart, but should he interject? He thought back to the log entry made regarding the officer on the Darkheart who once served with Lieutenant Hawkins. _If she was still onboard, he might be able to get them to meet up, but to risk the ship and crew for one person? What had his first officer said? Ah yes, '_No _One_ officer is worth the risk or the price we paid'. _Could he risk his ship and crew again for one person?_

He looked to his Chief Medical Officer and then to his First Officer.

He'd made up his mind, "Ensign Fain, set course for the Alascarnia system, warp eight. Doctor, I advise that you get Medical bay ready, we don't know what we are dealing with here."

"Aye Sir," replied Paul, striding to the turbo lift as he reached for his communicator, "Doctor Pel, report to Medical Bay immediately."

"We're going to investigate?" asked Katherine, as a smile slowly rose onto her face and her right eyebrow rose. She was starting to get a good feel for how the Captain liked to undertake his missions, for how he made his name and got his reputation.

"Number One, if it was a medical emergency, then why the distress signal? If they are in trouble, then why change to a quarantine signal?"

"Something bad had happened that they couldn't deal with, so they have changed the signal to prevent it getting worse?"

"Exactly Commander, lets see what we can do to help," smiled Mike as he knew he'd just got Katherine as intrigued as he was about this.

"They have increased their number of troops?" shouted Dratumis, leader of the Black Clan of Selenus. "Where have they got more troops from? Everything is supposed to be balanced, as it was written in the scrolls."

The Black Clan light arts bearer spoke to his leader, "The ship in orbit? That could lead to the answer."

His counterpart spoke out, "Preposterous! They know that outside help is strictly forbidden in this war. Calling on the gods is allowed, but not to this level of their turning up and interfering. We should call for the removal of Tramidus at once."

"The only way to remove him is to defeat his army. With this extra help there will be no chance now. I say we call on the gods as well; if they are merciful and fair, they too will increase our troops to match their number," countered the light arts bearer.

"Your gods have never answered you, never inspired you to achieve a strategic advantage over the clan of Regence."

"And your dark gods have? The very idea of having dark gods!" scoffed the light arts bearer. "I will not have you scorn my gods!" shouted the dark arts bearer.

"ENOUGH! This is getting us nowhere. You," he pointed to the light arts bearer, "Call on your gods, get them to answer us the way they answered for Tramidus."

"Yes, my king," he groveled as he exited from the royal chamber, followed by the dark arts bearer who would also call on his gods, to ensure there was going to be an answer.

They both hoped that they too would get a visitation to help reinforce their numbers.

"This isn't real. None of this is," said Paul as he pointed around the Holodeck, which was currently running the program Genesis One. The Holodeck was once again playing Scott's program of his quarters on the USS Genesis that he once shared with Michelle, who was currently standing next to Scott.

Paul walked around Michelle, with Scott watching his every move, "She's not real. Granted you've done a fabulous job of making her real-"

Before he could finish, he found himself on the floor, rubbing his face where Scott had struck him.

"What the hell?" asked Paul.

"SHE IS REAL!" shouted Scott. "Computer, run Program Franquila One."

The Holodeck surroundings changed, the crew quarters vanished as quickly as they had been created and instead Paul found himself in the prison cell that Scott had known for three years. The burley Romulan Interrogator was also present, who immediately spotted Paul, picked him up and slammed him against the forcefield surrounding the door, sending a shock through Paul's body, dropping him to the floor. Scott for his part did nothing; he just backed away into a corner.

"You gonna tell me that this isn't real? That the forcefield isn't real? This is real; I lived this for three years. This was the only reality I knew, no one was coming for me, I lost everything that I held dear to me. Computer, restart Genesis One," and as he gave the command, the scene reverted back to his quarters, "I lost my ship, my crew, my freedom."

Scott moved closer to Michelle, "I lost my love."

Paul got up off the floor, still feeling the pain from his slam against the forcefield as well as the punch he'd received from Scott.

"I'm Sorry." Paul sat down on the chair, "Do you remember what happened, what caused the loss of the Genesis?"

Scott looked at him and sat down on the floor opposite Paul, "There was an intruder on the ship. We don't know who; we never managed to locate him. All we found was an anomalous reading; some form of energy that we couldn't identify, possibly temporal. Either the intruder managed to drop the shields or that anomalous energy reading clashed with the shields and caused them to collapse. The resulting Romulan attack then caused the ship to suffer a warp core breach. We evacuated the ship but the Romulans started to fire upon the escape pods. Mine was fired on and I found myself on the Romulan ship. They must have transported me onto their vessel, along with a few other members of the crew. The rest of the crew must have been killed."

Scott once again looked up to the image of Michelle, his voice a whole lot quieter that when he last spoke, a whole lot less animated, "I lost her."

For the first time since Scott had arrived on the ship, Paul realized that he had unintentionally made a breakthrough through Scotts' cold, distant demeanor. Scott wasn't hiding from reality; he was just finding a way to remember it, to hold onto it.

"Scott, this," Paul pointed back around the Holodeck, "This was a good time for you, but now you need to build up a new life here. Hiding in the Holodeck isn't going to help. If you're lonely, if you need friends, there are plenty of people on this ship who would be happy to help, to be friends with you. Hiding in here means that you cannot move forward with your life."

"Maybe I don't want to," Scott remarked.

"I know that's not true. If it was, then why did you stay in Starfleet? Why stay on the Revelation? Why become this ships Chief Engineer?"

Scott didn't answer, but his gaze on Michelle spoke volumes.

The USS Revelation arrived on the edge of the Alascarnia system, an approach the Captain thought was prudent given the information that they currently had on the present situation. Captain Delany ordered a deep system scan, which Commander Savok was reporting on when Lieutenant Commander Galloway arrived on the Bridge with Scott, who he had managed to eventually pry out of the Holodeck.

"The sensors have detected the USS Darkheart in orbit around the fifth planet. Their power is low and it is in a standard orbit around the planet, however I detect no life forms on board."

"Can we access their ships computer, see if they left any log entries to state what had happened to their ship and crew?" asked Mike.

Paul moved in closer, to hear what the logs were to reveal. Katherine moved slightly aside to allow him to hear more, should there be any medical information he would need to know so he could ascertain what action would be required to be taken.

"Accessing now," spoke Savok, as his fingers deftly worked his console, "Putting it on speakers."

"This is Captain Beverly Gordon, Commanding Officer of the USS Darkheart. My crew has been forced to beam down to the planet by a ruling King named as Tramidus to participate in their sporting games. If I hadn't sent them down then my away team, which had beamed down to investigate a distress signal Tramidus had transmitted, would have been executed along with my rescue team. There is nothing I can do to save the rest of my crew. All I can do now, is hope that this recording will be used to warn any ship not to attempt any rescue."

"That is all we have Captain," spoke Savok.

Mike brought his hand up to his face as he thought about it; clearly this was the last thing he had expected to encounter. Now, if he tried to contact this King Tramidus, he could end up jeopardizing his own crew's safety. Yet he couldn't just leave Captain Gordon there. He needed to find a solution. But what was it going to be?"

"Captain," spoke Katherine, "The moment we make contact with this planet, with this King Tramidus, he will use the crew of the Darkheart against us to force us to beam down."

"I know Number One, we need to be careful here for how we handle this situation. Savok, do we have any information on this planet?"

"Negative Captain, nor does the Darkheart."

Mike looked at Savok wondering how he knew that and remembered that his Vulcan officer would automatically have checked the Darkheart's computer for any mention of this planet, probably whilst Mike was considering his next actions.

"Captain, we are being hailed."

Mike looked from Savok, to Katherine and then to Lieutenant Kel Aniyan.

"Speakers," he commanded.

Apparently King Tramidus knew of their arrival or at the very least had anticipated it. "Unidentified Vessel, this is the Black Clan of Selenus, King Dratumis speaking to you. If you are here to help the other vessel, then you will need to do it through us. King Tramidus of the White Clan of Regence holds them hostage and plans to use them in his evil games. To stop him, you will need our help and we will need yours. Send down a contingent of your officers to discuss this situation in greater detail. We will provide you with meeting co-ordinates. We look forward to seeing you in person. This is King Dratumis, eagerly awaiting your response."

King Dratumis finished his communication to the alien vessel, "You were right," he commended his Light Arts bearer, "Another visitation was going to happen. Now we need to bring them down here; if your theory about them wanting to help their colleagues is correct, then they will arrive at the co-ordinates that you provided."

"Yes my King," he responded, "They will come down to aid the other ship. When they do, we will use them the way that King Tramidus is using the other aliens. This vessel appears bigger, so we could have more people to outnumber theirs."

"No!" instructed King Dratumis, "We have to keep the balance. We will see how these aliens help us in our continual battle against the Clan of Regence."

Down on Kiylas, Captain Gordon was standing in the elaborately decorated Throne Room of Regence with King Tramidus, who was explaining all about the ongoing war with the Clan of Selenus.

"So you see, Dratumis is a pretender to the throne. There can only be one ruler of a planet, and as leader of the Clan of Regence, I am the natural choice. Whilst there are two factions, we will continually fight amongst ourselves, preventing our people from uniting together to create a harmonious world. Until we can unite our people, we will forever be fighting. Your crew can help us with that, whilst you are here, you have increased our numbers considerably to give us a strategic advantage. With superior numbers, we can over power them, bring them to their knees and unite our world once and for all. That is why your crew has been conscripted to help us."

"We have a non-interference directive. We will not interfere in the internal affairs of your planet. Regardless of what you threaten us with, we will never co-operate," retorted Beverly as she stood opposite Tramidus.

"And if I was to start executing your officers?" he asked.

"They knew the risks when they signed up for the mission. We will stop you Tramidus, don't you worry we will stop you."

For all her bravado, she still had a sense of worry as her crew had been divided into small groups and separated into different combat training arenas. Once trained enough, they would be sent to a localized battlefield to engage the enemy, in this case the Clan of Selenus.

"Our call to the Gods, was answered and they brought you. Most of your crew should survive the battle; the ones that do will be allowed to return to your ship. That is as long as the battle is won."

"And if we don't win?"

"Well, your deaths will just serve the greater good, and will appease the gods when my troops go into battle against Dratumis' men. Either way, with superior numbers we will win and Dratumis will finally fall. Guards, take her to the preparation centre and prepare her for the upcoming battle."

"We're being played," spoke Katherine as she sat with the rest of the senior officers in the meeting. Mike didn't have long to decide what to do here which was why he had called a quick meeting with his officers. "The moment we beam down, we become involved in their war, which we cannot do due to the prime directive."

"But we need to stop them from using Federation technology or personnel against the Clan of Selenus," reported Kel.

"What we are looking at here is to find a way to try to restore the balance, the easiest way is to remove the crew of the USS Darkheart from the planet and find out what, if anything they have had to give to this King Tramidus," informed Savok, who had already worked out the logical solution to the situation.

Mike looked at him, an idea forming in his head, "We need two teams. One on the Darkheart to undertake a quick evaluation of the ship to find out what, if anything is missing. That task will be assigned to you Commander," spoke Mike directly to Savok.

He turned his attention to Commander Malloy, "I want you to take a small contingent down to the planet, to help locate Captain Gordon's crew. Once located, I want you to contact the ship with their co-ordinates. We can then use both ships transporters to beam up their crew."

"Agreed Sir. I will need Kel and Vexx as Security along with Ensign Fain to help map out where we are going quickly. The four of us will be the initial away team. I will also want some extra security officers on standby should we require them."

"Good. Savok, your team?" asked Mike, satisfied with his First Officers choice.

"Lieutenant Hawkins, Jones and the Brook sisters should suffice. They will be able to help determine what equipment, if any has been lost."

"Good. Get your teams assembled fast, time is against us, and Number One I don't have to tell you about providing technology to Dratumis or his men, do I?"

"No Sir, we are just there to help get our people back."

"Good. Dismissed."

Down on the planet, Katherine, Kel, Vexx, and Fain had all transported down to the co-ordinates provided by Dratumis, who had met them as he stated that he would once the Revelation had contacted him back to advise that they were coming down to the planet. Dratumis had brought with him both of his Knights along with his Bishops.

"Are you the Captain of the ship?" asked Dratumis, as he surveyed the rest of the landing party.

"No, I'm the First Officer. I lead my selected away teams whilst the Captain stays on the ship to monitor how the mission is progressing."

"Ah, much like how we operate. In our society, you would be our Queen." He looked at both Security Officers and addressed them directly, "That would make you two the equivalent of our Knights. Lastly, you would be the equivalent of our Bishops, who provide us with the means to achieve our goals."

Ensign Fain looked at him, a smile played across his face, "Yes, I suppose that would be my role."

"Excellent, I am glad that we all understand the roles that we are here to play."

Katherine looked at King Dratumis, "We have a non-interference directive-"

"Which you are breaking by being here!" roared back the leader of the Black Clan of Selenus. "We are here to restore the balance on your world, by retrieving our captured comrades from the White Clan of Regence, and returning them to our fellow ship high above."

"And we shall aid you in their retrieval, however you state that you shall aid us in restoring the balance to my world, then if they have received technology from your other ship?"

He let the question hang in the air as he looked over at Ensign Fain, Lieutenants' Vexx and Kel finally resting his gaze on Katherine, who answered with, "As I said, we will help restore the balance."

"Good, that is all I ask. I'm sure the gods will look favorably on us this day."

Katherine instructed Fain to get his tricorder out and start preliminary scans of the area to see if they could locate the crew of the USS Darkheart. Fain brought out his scanning device and ran checks to see if he could locate the crew. The tricorder caught the eye of King Dratumis who considered how useful an object it could be at locating people.

"What exactly is its scanning range?" he asked Fain.

"Approximately two thousand meters," he replied.

"So you could detect where your crew members are, without getting too close to be spotted by the enemy?"

"That's correct. It's a very useful implement on our away missions."

"And if I wanted to get hold of these devices?"

Ensign Fain looked at him, "That is not possible as it goes against our directive of providing technology to races that are not as technologically advanced as the Federation is."

"I see. That is a shame, as I could have made it worth your while."

"As we said, it isn't possible to provide you with any."

Fain's fingers worked the tricorder and he quickly signaled Commander Malloy to advise that he was picking up the readings from the crew of the USS Darkheart. Fain pointed towards the north.

"Ahead, is the confrontation ground where we have always conducted our wars," informed Dratumis. "It has been passed down through the generations that all wars are fought on the confrontation ground. Ironically, all other areas on the planet are off limits for wars with the exception of the confrontational ground, which is sacred to both Clans. The spirits of our ancestors watch over us there."

As they continued their approach more slowly to ensure that they were not detected, Commander Malloy's communicator badge beeped. She tapped and spoke, "This is Commander Malloy, go ahead."

"This is Commander Savok. We have conducted our survey of the USS Darkheart and it appears that some small pieces of equipment are missing. By the looks of it, phasers and tricorders."

"I see. So we need to redress the balance. Stand by Commander we believe that we have located the crew of the Darkheart. They are approximately twelve hundred meters north of our position."

She looked at Fain who confirmed his assent of the information.

"We will lock onto them with our transporter and get them out of the way."

King Dratumis shook his head at this information. "If they are on the confrontation ground, they can only be removed by combat. If they are removed by other means then dishonor will be placed onto the Clan that removes them."

"But we are not a Clan and they are not supposed to be even involved in this war," cited Katherine, not happy at the sudden hurdle that had been thrown her way, this hurdle just made her job harder.

"You are a Clan. You are the Clan of Revelation. They are the Clan of Darkheart. You are all Clans."

"We are not part of this world, the rules of this world do not apply to us. The Clan of Regence captured the crew of the Darkheart and is now using them in part of their games. They never wanted this. All they did was answer a fake distress signal. We help those in need."

Fain moved up to his Commander.

"Let's play this by their rules. Since they abducted the crew of the Darkheart, we abduct them. We get them to come up to the ship freely then hold them until they release the crew of the Darkheart. We will have to propose this to both sides though, maybe offer an incentive. They already know we cannot offer them equipment but I believe that they will still come under the pretense of actually getting something."

"It does look like that is going to be our only option Ensign," agreed Katherine, hoping that both Clans would agree to the offer.

She approached King Dratumis and spoke to him directly.

"We will help. There is an imbalance here and we need to address it. However we will do it our way. You will send a messenger to the Clan of Regence and tell them that in exchange for each side having the same equipment, we get the crew of the USS Darkheart back. Agreed?"

King Dratumis checked with her, "What one clan has, the other will have? Both amounts equal to redress the balance?"

"Yes," smiled Katherine in reply.

"Very well, we shall send one of our messengers and await their response," confirmed Dratumis.

Within an Hour, both Kings had agreed to the exchange and met onboard the Revelation where Captain Delany was waiting for them.

"You both understand the conditions to this?" asked the Captain.

"Yes, we both have the same amount of equipment as the other Clan," spoke King Tramidus, "Which restores the balance," added King Dratumis.

"Excellent. As I understand, since King Tramidus has phasers and tricorders, we need to ensure that King Dratumis will also end up with the same amount. We checked the inventory of the USS Darkheart and they confirmed that one hundred phasers and tricorders have been removed from the ship stores."

King Tramidus smiled as he confirmed the information. King Dratumis scowled at his smile. Captain Delany continued, "To ensure that everyone sticks to their sides of this new agreement, we will use the transporters on both ships to transport the equipment and people at exactly the same time. Agreed?"

Both Kings nodded their assent.

Mike tapped his communicator, "Commander Savok, Commander Malloy, Lieutenant Hawkins, Lieutenant Piper, Ensign Fain and Ensign Brook, tell your teams to energize." Within a matter of minutes, the crew of the Darkheart had materialized back on their ship; their co-ordinates having been provided by King Tramidus and the equipment imbalance restored. "Captain, all teams have confirmed all transports are successful."

"Excellent. Everything is back in balance," smiled Mike at both Kings.

"What!" screamed King Tramidus.

"We were to get phasers and tricorders!" shouted King Dratumis.

"No, I said that both clans would have the same equipment as each other. I never specified that you would have equipment from either vessel. No, you are back to the levels of technology that you originally started with before you sent the distress signal. We for our part will now place a system wide quarantine on this place, keeping all ships away from your planet for good."

Mike turned towards the duty transporter chief, "Get them off my ship now."

"Captains Log, stardate 45300.0,

"Starfleet Command has agreed to the system wide ban on the Alascarnia system, no Federation ships will be allowed to enter the system ever again, thankfully as I think we were lucky in getting the Crew of the USS Darkheart safely back whilst also restoring the balance with the removal of the phasers and tricorders. Captain Gordon has allowed a transfer of-" Before Mike could finish his log entry, he was interrupted by the sound of his door chime, "Enter," he answered and in walked Kel Aniyan and Katherine Malloy.

"Captain, we have a problem," spoke Kel.

"What problem?" asked Mike, concerned with this coming from his Chief of Security.

"We appear to be missing some phasers and tricorders. With General Order One now in place in the Alascarnia system, we cannot go back to retrieve them. The planet Kiylas has an imbalance once again technology wise. We did beam up all the phasers and tricorders from the Clan of Regence but it appears that someone beamed some of ours down to the Clan of Selenus."

"Commander, Lieutenant. I want you both to work together to find out who and why. I don't care how long it takes, but find the person responsible and bring that person or persons to me."

"Understood Sir, we will find him, her or them." Both officers left the ready room, leaving the Captain with his thoughts, _'It appeared he had an officer or officers on board that he could no longer trust, but who?'_

Lieutenant Hawkins was lying on his bed in his quarters, glad to get another mission out of the way, thinking to himself that Paul Galloway was right; he did seem to be hiding from people, not wanting to make friends with any of the crew. Paul had at least made the effort to try to befriend him; maybe he should leave his quarters and try to hang out with him, maybe. After a few more moments of thought, he made up his mind, "Computer, location of Paul Galloway?"

"Paul Galloway is currently on Holodeck Two."

Scott stood up and moved towards the door when the door chime sounded, "Enter," he called. The doors opened and she stood before him, "You…it, it's you," he stammered at her.

She looked at him, unable to believe her eyes, "You're alive. I saw your escape pod destroyed. I-"

Before she could finish, Scott rushed up to her, embraced her and kissed her passionately. After a long embrace, they separated, "Captain Gordon has approved my transfer to the Revelation. Captain Delany has approved for us both to be in the same quarters."

Michelle Lowe walked into Scotts' quarters and dumped her belongings, "Now, Rochelle has told me that because of your _recent_ experience, you are struggling with interacting with the crew, she has also told me that the Captain's birthday is coming up. Lets see how you do with helping to organize his party."


	5. S1 E5 - Planet Of The Damned

**STAR TREK - REVELATION**

**Episode 005 – Planet of the Damned**

_Pen Name: Stringyfellow._

"Are we sure of the readings?" asked Captain Delany, addressing his Operations Manager Commander Savok who raised his head and stared back at the Captain.

To the Vulcan Science Officer this question seemed pointless. It served no purpose, as the Captain seemed to be questioning his ability to do the job, to provide correct information on every anomaly that they ever encountered. Yet, he was a Vulcan and as such, he was always thorough in each task that he undertook even prior to reporting his findings. Every detail would be checked and rechecked before he reported it to the Captain or the First Officer depending whoever was on duty.

In this case, it was the Captain.

As it seemed he was being questioned once again about his ability, he just stared back at the Captain, not defiantly but just to state that he was sure.

Sure enough, Mike understood that indeed his Officer was correct in the information provided. The next words that he spoke confirmed it, "Of course you are. Can you speculate on the origins of them all?"

"Scanning."

Savok was quiet for a few moments whilst he worked the controls on his console, running various scans on the unusual sight that had stopped the Revelation in its tracks. The view screen was showing a massive collective of various star faring vessels in what appeared to be a circular shape with what looked like a very old Vulcan ship at the centre of it. Upon closer inspection most of the ships looked to be out of place by at least a century. None of the vessels were of the same configuration either.

"Captain, there appears to be Klingon, Romulan, Ferengi, Gorn, Orion, early Federation and other vessels which don't appear to be in our extensive database."

"Can you speculate as to how they got there?"

"Without further information I am unable to."

The doors at the back of the Bridge opened up and Commander Malloy entered. She proceeded to head towards Commander Savok's console when she stopped and stared at the view screen.

"Well, that's something you don't see everyday."

"We are currently trying to speculate on how they got there and into the state that they are currently in," informed Mike.

"Speculate is indeed what we are doing. Without further information to place into the computer, I have no way to formulate an answer as to how they achieved this current state," concluded Savok.

Mike moved away from the console and addressed his First Officer.

"Once we have finished scanning this super structure on the outside, you can take a small team over to the ship or ships, depending how we view it, to determine its origin or see if it can provide clues as to how all these ships became joined together."

"Understood Sir. Commander Savok, notify me when you have completed the scans."

"Acknowledged Commander."

Captain Delany turned towards Ensign Fain at the helm of the Revelation, "Keep the ship as far away from that structure as possible but close enough for transporting distance."

"Aye Captain. Now holding at station keeping, forty two thousand kilometres."

Down in the Gymnasium on deck twenty, Rochelle and Hadrius were sparring. As unusual as this might seem that a Betazoid Counsellor and a Trill Medical Officer were sparring, it was not in the sense of fighting each other in hand to hand combat, this was a case of sparring with fencing foils.

"Keep your guard up."

"I am."

"Parry…Parry…Block…Parry…Block…Parry…Point!"

Hadrius Pel raised his foil, removed his helmet and smiled at his opponent, pleased with the fact that he had just taken a point from his tutor.

"Well?" he asked.

"You are getting better, much better than when you first picked up that foil back in the holodeck."

Hadrius sat down on one of the benches, grabbed a towel that he used to wipe his face along with a drink from the replicator.

"It's good to know that I am improving under your tuition."

Rochelle sat down next to him, removed her helmet and she too grabbed a drink that had been replicated earlier, "Yes you are. You are still using the same fencing program?"

"I am though I have increased its difficulty level to make it more challenging for me now."

Rochelle looked to him, "What level are you at now with it?"

"Level six. The opponent is a lot more skilful with his foil and a lot quicker and agile. I do find it challenging at times."

Rochelle couldn't help but smile at this.

Hadruis looked to her, a quizzical expression on his face, "Something amuses you?"

"Only _at times_? When I spar against him, he usually brings out his brother to try to get an advantage over me."

"His brother?"

"Yes. When I originally programmed this, I figured that at some point I might get too good so I allowed the computer to place a bit of treachery on his part. He usually calls for assistance and his brother comes out and then you have to fend them both off at the same time."

"Can it be done?"

"Why don't you find out when you next use the program? Run it under the delta program name."

Hadrius thought about it for a few moments, he then picked up his foil and gestured for Rochelle to do the same.

"Very well. I'll do that, though right now I think that you could use some more practice at defending yourself. En guard."

"Captains Log, Stardate 45382.4

"It has been seventy two hours since our discovery of the alien ships that appear to have been coupled together. I have sent numerous away teams over to the various ships in the structure to investigate them all. All the team leaders have since returned with their away teams and have produced collective reports, which I have been briefed about. It appears that all the ships vary from sixty to one hundred years old approximately. They were also _all_ abandoned. If they had been involved in a battle with one another, how is it that no-one has survived this?"

Mike looked at all the Padds on his desk, each one compiled by a team leader. They all summed up the same information. _No life signs, no sign of any missing escape pods, no shuttles missing. _

It made Mike think about the old tale of the Mary Celeste, an old earth ship that sailed on the sea but was found adrift with no crew on board. Could this be a similar case to that? He dismissed it straight away, as with any mystery there had to be a logical explanation. _Once everything has been ruled out, what ever is left, how ever implausible must be the truth._

So what was left? Could it be that if they did battle each other, a truce was formed and they combined all the rest of their ships together in the hopes of survival? If they had to what end?

Mike stood up and looked out of his ready room window to the collective Space Ships or maybe Space Station. _Space Station? _What could the power of that do? They never looked at that.

He turned and tapped the communicator on his desk, "Commander Savok?"

"Savok here, go ahead Captain."

"If all those ships were combined together to create some type of space station, what type of power would it have? Could it have somehow increased it's transporter range beyond what they had available individually?"

"Captain, the likelihood of them increasing the transporter range with a combination of ships is very minute indeed."

"Hypothesize that each ship has something unique to create a super transporter but no-one trusts anyone else not to use the items for their own gain, so they link all the ships together and interlink all the devices to create the new transporter. What could we be looking at for its range?"

"I would hypothesize that the range would be expediential, however the further the distance, the less likely the patterns of each individual would hold together. Therefore they would transport somewhere within either this or other neighbouring star systems. This is taking into account that the transporter could achieve such distance."

Mike sat back down, thinking, "Have Scott and David join you in researching this. I want to know if it is possible? And if it is, then try to determine if you can, what distance they could have potentially covered?"

"Understood sir. I will contact them immediately."

Another day had passed since the Captain had issued his instructions to Commander Savok. He, along with both Scott and David had worked throughout the night on this. Commander Savok did not help the project itself though overruling any of Scott's apparent outrageous ideas regarding the Engineering side. Scott still thought outside the box, his creative approach to the ideas rejected as farfetched. David acted as a go between for them having worked with both members of the senior crew and was able to help piece it all together.

The end result Commander Savok was currently informing to the Captain.

This allowed Scott and David to head down to Ten Forward to recharge themselves for another round of brainstorming, which they both had a feeling would soon take place.

When they had arrived in Ten Forward, they joined Paul and Michelle who were discussing plans for a birthday party.

"Are you absolutely sure that no-one will get in trouble? I thought that he didn't like surprises," asked Michelle.

"He doesn't. That is why this will be great. He will not be expecting it, but we need someone with a creative impulse to help pull this off," replied Paul.

Paul looked to Scott speculatively, knowing that the Chief Engineer was the most creative person on the ship; the problem though was if he would be capable of coming out of his shell enough. He had made progress though. He no longer used the Holodeck and he did socialise, but only with a select group of people, Michelle, Paul, along with both David and Lieutenant Gary Jones from the Engineering Department.

Still at least it was progress.

Scott looked to Michelle, then back to Paul and spoke, "No, I can just about cope with this."

"We need someone creative to help us make the party work," pleaded Paul.

Michelle looked at Paul, "Don't pressure him on this. He's managing to cope with this much socialising."

"Ok," sighed Paul, resigned to the fact that the party might never take place.

A smile slowly made its way onto Scott's face, "You want creative, Gary does creative too."

"Does he indeed?" smiled Paul, pleased that the surprise party might go ahead. "Now tell me about that hunk of ships out there that we have been stationed near."

"When we beamed back over, we were looking for individual elements of each races ship, but that was a dead end. We did find a couple of log entries on various ships that explained what had happened, as to why they had all been cannibalised together," informed Scott.

"Why were they?" asked Michelle.

"Apparently they had all worked together to defeat a more powerful enemy. They managed it but each ship was too badly damaged to sustain a prolonged flight back to their respective home worlds." continued David, "We've hypothesized that the Ferengi suggested combining the ships together as they would all profit from staying alive. Most of the other races must have agreed to a temporary truce to sacrifice their ships for the greater good."

"The Vulcans came up with the design, with help from the Romulans and the Orions into how the ships should be combined and linked together. The layout of the ships allowed them to get enough power to the Vulcan ship, which was turned into a giant transporter, as that ship was the most sophisticated," interjected Scott.

"Into a giant transporter?" asked Paul in disbelief.

"They were able to direct a massive amount of power into the central ship, which is used as the focal point of the beam. We believe it allowed them to extend the range of the normal transporter. It's currently directed towards a class M planet that is about a light year away," continued Scott, the excitement in his voice growing.

"For it to work, surely it needs a strong signal source for it to lock onto?" asked Michelle.

Michelle, though working as a security Officer on the Revelation since her transfer from the USS Darkheart had originally been part of science department on the USS Genesis, which she had served on with Scott before it had been destroyed by a Romulan attack. It was just after that attack, where she believed Scott had been killed when she saw his escape pod destroyed by the Romulans that she had switched from the sciences to security, in the hopes that if this sort of thing occurred in the future she could help better defend the ship than she had last time.

"This planet that it is aimed at has a strong electromagnetic field on it. I think they used it to help focus the beam, kind of like using it as a homing beacon."

"You think that these races are on that planet?" asked Paul, a bit of scepticism in his voice. David put his hand up to stop everyone talking for a minute, "The ship is changing course, we must be off to investigate the planet."

Paul, Michelle and Scott looked towards the port window and sure enough the view was shifting as the ship changed its course, which was now set for this new class M planet.

It seemed that the implausible theory was now actually seemingly possible.

The USS Revelation had completed its course change and found itself in orbit of an ice planet. The ice planet did indeed have a strong electromagnetic field, which interacted heavily with solar storms from a nearby star. The star seemed to be unstable, like an astral body had at some point collided with it and increased its activity. There was also a small moon that orbited the planet, which reduced the electromagnetic field on the planet but only when it was in a direct alignment in between the planet and the star.

Shuttles could have a problem travelling through the field. All electric equipment on the shuttle could fail which would make the ship impossible to fly, probably impossible to land, definitely probable to crash. This was something that the crew quickly realised could also cause possible problems with beaming unless they could get a finely tuned Transporter beam through the field safely or wait until the moon aligns itself with the star on each orbit which might not provide them with much time. This also explained why the shuttles were still on the station, as they were not capable of making the long journey to the planet from the station, as none of them were warp capable.

On the Bridge of the Revelation, Mike was conferring with his senior Officers. Apparently the Revelation, whilst orbiting the northern hemisphere of the planet had detected what they thought was a concentration of structures, however due to the interference, they were not completely sure. There was only one way to find out, and that would be to attempt to beam down.

"If we are to beam down to the planet, should it be possible, we will need some way to return to the ship. Scott suggested we take some transport enhancers down with us. He knows that they were not in existence when those ships were conjoined. They should allow us to be located so that the transporter can lock onto our signal and beam us back to the ship."

"That being said Commander," said Savok, "due to the extreme temperatures on the planets surface, it could be possible that the enhancers could fail. We would need other options to allow us to get off the planet just in case."

"There's nothing else that we have. Scott has looked at just about everything he can get his hands on in the hope that he can use it as insurance to get us back. He hasn't found anything yet. All we have are the pattern enhancers. If we can take him down to the planet-"

"Sorry Number One, I'm limiting the numbers on this. Scott stays. I want him here in case we need his help to get you back off the planet," interrupted Mike.

Mike knew that if something went wrong, Scott would have the greatest chance of finding a way to help rescue the team based on the Revelation than on the planet's surface. "Keep the away team to yourself, Gary Jones, Savok and Ensign Fain."

"Captain, I've located a weak spot in the mesosphere layer of the planet. When the moon next aligns itself with the planet and star, we should be able to beam down through that point.

"Very well. Take the enhancers and equip your team for extreme cold weather conditions. Beam down when ready."

The transport down to the planet didn't go as smoothly as the away team had hoped. Commander Savok, Lieutenant Jones and Ensign Fain beamed down smoothly out of the group, however it was Commander Malloy whose footing slipped as she materialised and fell into a crevice, which the combined interference of the strong electromagnetic field and solar rays from the star had initially prevented the Revelation from detecting. Gary, with the assistance of Savok managed to climb down the fifteen feet drop to reach her. "She's not going anywhere. Her right leg is broken. I'll need to snap it into place and try to splint it."

"Lieutenant Jones, we have nothing to use as a splint," informed Savok as he leaned over the edge to speak to his junior Officer.

"Unpack the transport enhancers. They will have to be carried by hand. I can use the case as a makeshift splint. It will stop her trying to move her leg."

Ensign Fain looked at Commander Savok who nodded to unpack the enhancers. Fain went to work on them.

"What is the Commander's condition?" asked Savok.

"Not good, she is unconscious. She can't stay here but between us we cannot move her. We need help. I'll stay with her and do my best to keep her warm."

"Very well Lieutenant. We will go for help."

Commander Savok set off in the direction of the settlement with Ensign Fain, having left the enhancers with Lieutenant Jones. Commander Savok and Ensign Fain had been travelling in the blizzard for a couple of hours when Ensign Fain looked at Commander Savok and asked, "Was it wise to leave the enhancers with Lieutenant Jones? Surely if we had kept them with us then if we ran into trouble we could be located and beamed back to the ship."

Commander Savok looked back towards where the crevice was, though in the blasty icy wind and snow he couldn't even fully tell where it was, "I have faith in the Lieutenant that he will activate them should Commander Malloy's condition deteriorate further, providing that he can keep himself and her from freezing. If he didn't believe that he could, then why else would he volunteer to stay behind? I suggest that we continue in the direction of the ice structure with all possible speed Ensign."

A couple of hours had passed since Commander Savok and Ensign Fain had left Lieutenant Jones caring for Commander Malloy. Gary had managed to snap the bone in her right leg more or less straight and the casing of the enhancers seemed to have done a good job in both stopping Katherine trying to move her leg as well as acting as a makeshift splint.

As for Gary, he had removed his jacket and covered Katherine up with it whilst he looked for rocks to heat up. Thankfully for the bit of luck the away team had managed to get on this mission so far, he'd found a few and brought them over to where his Commanding Officer now lay and he'd used his laser welder from his portable Engineering kit that he always took with him on missions, even if it seemed like it wouldn't be required, to heat the rocks up which were interspersed around them. Now he was lying next to Katherine to keep her warm, sharing his body's warmth with hers, hopefully increasing their chances of survival. He also lay next to her, as he knew in his heart that this would be the closest he could ever get to her physically.

"Katherine, the rocks will help circulate the heat around us, keeping you warm. I'll have to lie next to you to keep your body temperature up, it will keep you alive for longer. Commander Savok will be back soon with help. You have to keep conscious."

He grabbed hold of her wrist and checked her pulse; it was still strong, balanced. He moved his hand down and clasped her hand, holding it tight.

He then continued to speak to her, but much quieter, more softly than he first had.

"You were the reason why I wanted to join the Revelation. When I was at the academy, I saw you in the final year, at the graduation ceremony; you looked radiant. I knew then that I had to do whatever it took to try to get close to you, to get you to notice me for the right reasons. For me to have a chance to be with you-"

Katherine stirred a little. Gary looked at her and pulled his jacket round them both.

"Don't try to move, your leg is broken. Commander Savok is going for help. Try to rest, I will keep an eye on you, keep you safe and warm."

"Cold, so co…co…cold," she murmured.

Gary brought his entire body next to hers and hugged her tight, the heat from the rocks still warming them both thankfully.

Commander Savok and Ensign Fain had reached the ridge where beyond they could see the structure. The structure didn't look as sound as what they had first thought from the limited scans that the Revelation had managed through the atmospheric interference. It appeared that the structure was divided into two halves.

Logic now dictated that the team should split itself even more to double the chance of help, instead of gambling on which side of the structure to attempt to make contact with. Neither side of the structure looked to be in the best condition; both seemed to have suffered damage. "_This_" thought Savok, "_doesn't look too optimistic. If both sides are fighting each other, then we might not be able to get the help we need. They might not have the reserves required to help us to allow us to help them."_

"Commander, it looks like we will have to split up to increase our chances of getting help for Commander Malloy. Where and when do you want us to rendezvous?"

Commander Savok quickly assessed their options and then addressed the question that had been asked of him. "I believe that six hours should be long enough to establish contact, determine how they can best help us and to meet back at this ridge. You do remember your first contact training, don't you Ensign?"

"Aye Commander, I do remember."

"That is reassuring to hear. I will head to the eastern structure; you will head to the western structure."

"Understood Commander." He was then struck by a thought and not a good one, but the question it raised had to be asked, "What if, when one of us makes it to the rendezvous point, the other one doesn't make it?"

Again Savok thought about this, each solution was not an ideal one. "Then, if that person has help, he must get to Commander Malloy and Lieutenant Jones."

Both remaining members of the away team set off on their own, to their chosen structures.

Back onboard the USS Revelation, Captain Delany was getting anxious. It wasn't a case of worrying over the away team; it was the fact that they were still no closer to safely penetrating the atmosphere with their transporters. The first beam down seemed to go successfully but they hadn't heard from the team since, nor had they managed to establish contact with the away team, however during an unexpected weakening in the magnetic interference, they had determined that the beam down point was very close to a crevice which hadn't been detected at first. Lieutenant Hawkins upon discovering this had gone through as many options as possible with Lieutenant Piper and Ensign Brook, who as the Transporter Chief who knew all the possible system configurations that could be set up.

Scott shook his head as he dragged his feet towards the food replicator. All three Officers had been going over the figures for about thirteen hours straight. He was thirsty and started to program the replicator for a drink. When he came back to the table, both Phillipa and David looked at the strange purple liquid that he had in the glass.

"What _is _that?" asked Phillipa.

Scott looked at the contents of the glass and sniffed it. "Erm…Romulan Fenreck."

"Romulan Fenreck?" asked David.

"Sorry. It was all I was given to drink when I was on Franquila. I guess I must have developed a taste for it. It's not quite right for the taste or pungency, but I can get rid of it and replicate something else instead that might be to your taste."

David and Phillipa looked at each other then back at Scott, with David continuing as he pulled a face, "As long as you don't expect us to drink it."

Scott sat down at the table, took a sip and replied, "I don't. I guess it's an acquired taste."

"Getting back on the subject," continued Phillipa, "I cannot think of anyway to enhance the transporters to get a better signal through."

"We do have the pattern enhancers on the planets surface."

"It's the atmosphere of the planet that is interfering with the transporter, David. I don't think they will help in this instance; they will only act as a homing beacon, if we can detect it through the atmosphere. The planet is the problem."

"So then, how do we change the atmosphere of the planet?"

"That's the challenge. We need environmental scans, thermal imaging readings, electroscopic readings, infrared and ultraviolet and any other scans that we can possibly determine. We need the environmental sciences division working on this with us from now."

Scott looked to the other two, "It's going to get long from here."

"You need our help to rescue one of your colleagues?" asked the Vulcan. Commander Savok had entered the installation and thankfully he was greeted with people who he associated with as members of the United Federation of Planets.

"That is correct. When we beamed down, regrettably one of our colleagues got injured and has broken their leg. They are currently in a crevice about fifteen feet down, being looked after by another of our colleagues."

"It wouldn't be logical to send out some of our colleagues. We keep fending off the occasional confrontational attacks from the other settlement. We do not have enough people to spare to assist you in this. I have to state that you will be on your own for this."

Commander Savok turned to look at all the people present in this room. The majority were Humans and Vulcans. If there were only these few races in this settlement that would suggest that Ensign Fain would be dealing with the more hostile races of the group. He could potentially have problems.

"If you were to help us, we could help you get off this planet."

"If you had that kind of technology, then you wouldn't be here asking for our help."

That outburst came from one of the humans.

An elderly looking gentleman, with thin greying hair and what appeared to be an old Starfleet uniform dated around the early twenty fourth century adorning his body stepped out from the rest of the group. A quick glance by Savok told him that this person was about sixty-eight earth years of age. He stepped forward towards Savok and looked him over, "We couldn't get off this planet over forty years ago. If you had the ability to then you wouldn't be here asking for our help now, would you?"

Savok could tell that this wasn't going to be easy, if anything it would be almost impossible. "My team managed to beam down here; therefore, it is logical to assume that we can beam back."

This human looked over to one of the Vulcan's then back to Savok, "That is the problem with Vulcan's, your damned logic. It is _logical_ to assume that you can beam back to the ship? Our esteemed Vulcan colleague over there assumed as much, and yet here we are, _Vulcan, _still stuck on this wretched freezing planet. There is _No_ way off. We are all damned to stay here till hell freezes over."

Lieutenant Jones was shivering, absolutely freezing cold, colder than he had ever experienced in his life. He checked his Laser Welder and could see that the charge had failed. The mechanism was totally ruined, completely seized up due to the freezing temperatures on the planet's surface. He looked up to the sky and could see it darkening.

Nightfall was coming, and with it like most planets, the temperature would drop even further. A major problem on an ice world like this with a constantly sub zero temperature. As he looked up, he could see an ice storm brewing overhead. The crevice would help to provide shelter from the storm, as long as none of the ice that blew fell into their location.

"Pha…phaser...use the phaser to…to heat the rocks," spoke out Katherine.

Gary looked over to her and quickly searched for her phaser. He found it by her side and quickly checked it over; his assessment told him that it should fire providing that the cold hadn't affected the phase coil inside the mechanism.

He aimed it at the rock closest to Katherine; thankfully it fired and started to heat the rock till it started to glow white-hot.

Ironic considering everything on this goddamned planet was white.

He moved the interspaced rocks closer into one larger pile and once again fired on them, hoping that they might hold the heat better together than separately. Again, he lay down on the floor next to Katherine and brought his body in closer to her, just in the hopes that he could provide extra warmth for her and provide himself with another opportunity to be with her. He looked up to the sky and could just make out the blackness of it through the icy, snowing gale blasting overhead. Silently he wished that some help from Fain, Savok or the ship would materialise and soon. He was getting tired and knew that if he slept, then there might be a chance that neither he nor Katherine would potentially wake back up.

Lieutenant Commander Alexandria Challoa had joined up with Scott, David and Phillipa in the Observation lounge. Alexandria was a slim, red headed forty-two year old female of oriental decent, who was in charge of the Revelation's Environmental Sciences division who worked under Commander Savok. She had joined the team in trying to find a way to penetrate the atmosphere of the planet.

For her part, she had examined all the scans that the Revelation had taken along with the original information on the beam down of Commander Malloy's team.

"We might be able to get a shuttle into the atmosphere," informed Alexandria.

"Commander, we have looked at trying to get a shuttle into the atmosphere, the magnetic fields from the planet will interfere with the shuttles systems. There is no way we can fly the shuttle into it."

"But there is. I've had a look at the information from the Away team's reports regarding the Transporter beam of the station. I believe that it successfully managed to transport the stations races safely through the atmosphere and onto the planet without any problems."

"But we cannot scan through the atmosphere long enough to locate the away team along with the survivors to even use the stations Transporters to beam them back," argued back Phillipa.

David looked to her and then to Alexandria and then spoke to her, "You think we can use the station's Transporter to beam everyone back up, with the help of the Revelations sensors?"

Scott shook his head, "Not possible. By the time the Revelation sends information to the station regarding the atmospheric readings, they will have changed too much for the stations Transporter to be effective. We'd already looked at that."

"We have already managed to get a team down there with the Transporter; we could use the shuttle transporter to beam them back up. The shuttle cannot be piloted through the atmosphere due to the interference from the Star and the EMF of the planet, but it could be glided through, potentially with a tractor beam, with the Shuttle temporarily powered down so nothing is affected. The stations' transporter beam did it successfully, so a tractor beam should potentially be able to do the same thing," pointed out Alexandria.

"Which means that if the beam can protect a Shuttle, the Shuttle can scan the planet safely and transport the survivors to the Revelation," finished David.

Scott spoke up, "We will need a good pilot for the Shuttle along with a Shuttle Commander for it. We will need a Transporter Operator for the Shuttle."

Lieutenant Commander Challoa stood up, "Lieutenant Hawkins, you seem to have this in hand, I will go ahead and brief the Captain on what our rescue mission entails. Dismissed."

Commander Savok returned to the beam down point unsuccessfully, having failed in his mission to bring help from one of the camps that the away team had encountered. He managed to climb down the crevice to Gary and Katherine. "How are you holding up Lieutenant?" asked Commander Savok, who could see that coldness was seriously effecting Lieutenant Jones, "C-C-Commander, very co-c-cold. Phaser al-almost out of pow-wer. Katherine unconscious. Is, is help com-ming?"

"Yes Lieutenant. Help is on its way. I made contact with the survivors."

It was only a partial truth that Savok told Jones, but at least it was better to give some hope than take away any hope that was left.

"Pass me your communicator Lieutenant, perhaps if we take the power cell from it and put it in the phaser, we could increase it's power. The power cell from Commander Malloy's could be used in my communicator to try to strengthen the signal, maybe enough to reach the Revelation. Could you do that Lieutenant?"

"Aye sir, I could. H-h-here, drink this water that I-I melted from the ice, it will keep you g-go-going, especially considering the cold."

"I do not feel the cold Lieutenant."

Gary looked to him and tried to laugh. It came out more as a cough and wheeze, "Of co-course you do. Vulcan's high temperature mak-makes the Earth's Saha-ra desert feel like the North Pole."

Savok took a sip from the container, then he realised that he was drinking from the shell of a tricorder. Jones had stripped out the contents so he could make a basic drinking vessel. Credit to the Lieutenant, he was keeping them all alive with his creativeness. The question was, how long could they stay alive for, now that all hopes of help was riding on the success of Fain?

The shuttle launched from the Revelation without any problems. It took Scott a few seconds to lock the Ship's Tractor beam onto the shuttle. "This is Lieutenant Brook to Revelation, the tractor beam isn't fully stable around our shuttle, I think it's because of the Star's interference." There was a pause before she continued, a pause where she must have looked to Ensign Jorell for confirmation of that information, "We can pilot the shuttle with the Tractor beams help, without too much in way of problems, but…"

She let the '_but_' hang in the air for a few seconds, enough for Captain Delany to ask, "What but?"

"The beam is interfering with our transporter. We cannot energize, we cannot beam anything up to the shuttle. Our sensors seem ok, but we will need to do a few sweeps of the beam down site to see if we can actually determine what any of the readings actually are."

"They have been missing too long, you will have to be quick, use any method you can of locating them, sensors and communications. I will get Scott to monitor the beam and see if there is anything he can do to assist."

"Understood, shuttle Socrates out."

Mike sat down in his Command chair on the Bridge. "Lieutenant Hawkins?" he spoke out to the computer, to connect him with the Engineering department.

"Go ahead Captain," he responded.

Mike stood up as he spoke, "Lieutenant, Phillipa informs me that the Tractor Beam is interfering with the Shuttle's ability to use its Transporter."

"Slight side effect of the beam Sir. No way to correct. The moment I disengage the tractor beam, that shuttle WILL crash."

"Not what I wanted to hear Lieutenant."

"A good pilot might be able to buy it time, perhaps a few seconds, but Fain is currently on the planet. Now is the time to rate Jorell's ability." Scott paused as he pictured his Captains' look of frustration, "I'll see what I can do from here but no promises or guarantees."

"Understood, but the sooner the better."

Mike sat back down in his chair. '_Why was it always the Captains who always felt the most helpless. If only I knew what was happening on the planet?'_

Ensign Fain had returned to the beam down site; however what he had to report was not what Commander Savok wanted to hear. "Ensign, what happened?" Ensign Fain's clothing had been torn; his face bloodied and bruised, "They wanted my tricorder. They wanted to trade it in exchange for them helping us but I said no. Starfleet regulations prohibit our exchanging technology with races, which have yet to develop it. They then turned against me and tried to take it by force. I'm sorry Sir, I couldn't fend them all off and I lost the tricorder to them. They think that they can use the technology to get themselves into the other camps building. Maybe I should have traded; at least we would have been able to survive out here for longer."

"You did your best Ensign, which was all I could hope for. Now we will have to see if Lieutenant Jones can make some adjustments to my communicator to boost its range. We might still be able to contact the ship."

"Would my Communicator help?" asked Ensign Fain. Savok thought carefully about this. Lieutenant Jones' communicator had been used to keep the phaser going. Commander Malloy's communicator had been used in the hopes of increasing the signal boost to his own communicator. If that failed, then they would only have Fains left. "Not yet Ensign." He turned his attention to Lieutenant Jones, "Are we ready yet?"

"I cannot do anything else to it so here goes," answered Lieutenant Jones as he tapped the badge, "Lieutenant Jones to Revelation, come in Revelation."

"Lieutenant Jones, this is the Shuttle Socrates, we are reading you, but unable to locate your position. Please activate your enhancers, which we can use to triangulate your position and locate you."

"Unable to comply. We only have two working enhancers; one of them has frozen and is now failing to operate. I had to use some of it's components to help boost this communicator," replied Gary. Savok looked at the Enhancers and indeed did see one of them in pieces. Phillipa banged her hand on a wall panel in frustration. "We need some way to locate you."

In the background over the communication channel she could hear Commander Savok issuing an order. "Lieutenant?" she asked Jones.

"Socrates, we are going to overload a phaser in the hopes that you can detect it. Before we do that, we need you to locate a crevice approximately fifteen feet in depth, once you have it, signal us and we will blow the phaser."

"We are already over the crevice, but cannot see you. Activate the phaser's self-destruct. We should detect the explosion, just don't blow it too close to the edge or you could find yourselves buried in ice."

Sure enough, the shuttles sensors detected an explosion and moved into a holding pattern above the site and started slow, expanding circles in a search pattern.

"Lieutenant," spoke Ensign Jorell, "I'm detecting four life forms. That must be our away team."

"Lieutenant Jones, Commander Savok, we have located you, please standby, we cannot beam you up just yet, as we will be placing the shuttle at risk."

"Understood, standing by," confirmed Lieutenant Jones, who looked to Commander Savok. Their rescue was so close yet the shuttle could not beam them up, why?

"Lieutenant Brook," spoke Captain Delany through the communication channel with the shuttle, "Scott has mentioned that when you dropped lower over the crevice, the beam almost broke contact with you. He recommends that you increase height otherwise he cannot guarantee that the beam will hold."

"We need him to hold the beam long enough to beam up our team, and for you to beam us from the shuttle direct to the Revelation. A site to site transport."

"That is risky Lieutenant," advised Mike as he started pacing in front of his chair.

"Sir, I can do this, I can get them off that shuttle."

Mike looked to Lieutenant Piper and nodded to go ahead. David left the Bridge to head to the transporter room. "Lieutenant, David will operate the transporter from this end, can Jorell hold the shuttle long enough to allow you to lock onto the away team?"

"Aye Captain, he can."

"Good, then wait until David has a lock on your team then beam the away team up and prey."

Commander Savok, Lieutenant Jones and Ensign Fain all stood near Commander Malloy and helped her to her feet, ready for the beam up, this was going to be tight as Lieutenant Brook informed them of the plan. A multiple site to site to site beam had never been attempted before so this was going to be interesting. Over the open channel, they heard the words energize and sure enough they materialised on the shuttle Socrates, only to find the shuttle struggling to maintain its position.

"Report Lieutenant?" ordered Savok.

"No time Sir, Revelation, now or never!" shouted Lieutenant Brook as the shuttle's engines failed and it started to plummet towards to the ice.

David's hands flew over the controls of the Revelation's transporter as he locked onto the six occupants of the shuttle and energised. Thankfully to his credit, all six people materialised on the platform safely, as much as their current physical states allowed.

Lieutenant Commander Galloway quickly rushed over to the platform with his medical team and got Commander Evans onto a medical gurney and pointed to both Ensign Fain and Lieutenant Jones to follow him to the Medical bay, "Ensign, we need to look at those injuries and Lieutenant, you need treating for hypothermia. You can also brief me on this," he spoke pointing to the transport enhancer case on Commander Malloy's right leg.

Lieutenant Piper touched the communication button on the console, "Captain, we have the Away Team and the Shuttle team back on board. Regrettably, the Socrates was lost."

"Understood. Have Commander Savok report to my Ready Room, I need to know what happened down on the planet."

"Aye Captain."

In the Captain's Ready room, Commander Savok had briefed the Captain on the events of the mission. "Ensign Fain did the right thing and it almost cost him his life in the face of those adversaries," confirmed the Captain, "I will log a commendation for him with Starfleet. I will also do the same for Lieutenant Jones. He really came through for Commander Malloy. According to the report from Doctor Galloway, Lieutenant Jones' actions saved the life of Commander Malloy. As for the colonists on the planet, there is nothing we can do ourselves. I have already notified Starfleet about them and they will be sending a Science vessel out here to try to find a way to rescue them. All the data that Lieutenant Commander Challoa has correlated has been sent ahead to the USS Moraskshu, which will take over the rescue of the planets survivors. Hopefully they can achieve what we couldn't."

"Indeed Captain. I do have to admit that all the crew involved in this came through exceptionally well in how they all performed."

"Shall in inform those people of your feelings on how well you believe they operated?" asked Mike, suddenly realising what his Vulcan Second Officer had just admitted.

"No Captain that will not be necessary. Vulcan's do not have feelings, nor do they feel the need to give praise. None of that would be logical."

Commander Malloy was now sat up on her bio bed in the Medical bay, Lieutenant Jones and Ensign Fain having already been passed back ready for duty.

"How long am I going to be cooped up in here?" asked Katherine, upon the approach of the Chief Medical Officer. Paul looked up at the readings above the bed, "Maybe another day or so until I can confirm that everything is completely back to normal with you. What do you remember of the mission?" he asked, checking her memory.

"I was in the transporter room with Commander Savok, Lieutenant Jones and Ensign Fain, and then we beamed down to the planet. All I know then is that I was back on the Revelation. What exactly happened?"

"Lieutenant Jones saved you. He kept you alive. Without him, you would not be here now. I suppose you owe him your life."

"I suppose that I do, I just don't know to thank him?"

"I do," smiled Paul, "The Captain's birthday is coming up and we need someone creative to help us. Scott doesn't feel that he can do it but he believes that Gary can do just as good a job as him. Let Gary help us with this, work with him on it."

"Okay, just for the party only," she replied, knowing that she could regret it.

Over a coded frequency, a disguised voice spoke quietly, "As agreed, you have your equipment, whatever you can salvage from the shuttle, which I can send a signal to, to destroy it if your side isn't held up. You also have the remaining equipment from the site." A signal beeped on a console; hands deftly flew over them and the voice spoke once more, "The information is sound, it is all there. I'm sending co-ordinates of the crash site to you. This ends our conversation now." And with that, the communication link to the planet was severed.


End file.
